Tal Danino is a synthetic biologist and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University.^[1]

Education

Danino graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with Bachelor of Science degrees in physics, mathematics and chemistry. He received a Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and completed postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[2]

Research

Danino’s research focuses on the design and characterization of dynamic gene circuits in microbes with applications such as cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, summarized in a 2015 TED talk.^[3]

For his PhD thesis, he worked in Jeff Hasty's laboratory at UCSD, where he created synchronized oscillations in bacterial populations through synthetic biological circuits that combined positive and negative feedback with a fluorescent reporter.^[4] The resulting paper and corresponding video were published in Nature in 2010.^[5]

As a postdoctoral scientist at MIT, he worked in Sangeeta Bhatia's laboratory at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, where he used probiotics to colonize tumors and detect their presence in urine via a color-changing molecule, resulting in a publication in Science Translational Medicine in 2015.^[6] Here he also characterized an engineered strain of S. typhimurium for the sustained release of cancer therapeutics, which was published in Nature in 2016.^[7]

Since 2016, Danino runs the Synthetic Biological Systems Laboratory at Columbia University, which focuses on using Synthetic Biology to engineer living medicines. The lab designs gene circuits that control the behavior of living cells to sense-and-respond to their environments in vivo.^[8] They primarily focus on programming bacteria as a cancer therapy – whereby microbes selectively colonize tumors and are engineered to locally produce and release therapeutics, controlled by genetic circuits that enhance safety and efficacy.^{[9][10][11][12][13] [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

Artworks

Danino transforms living microorganisms like bacteria and cancer cells from the laboratory into bioart works using various forms of media. His works encompass many themes but often explores the relationship between humans, microbes and technology.

His work has been exhibited at Zurcher Gallery, in New York, USA, ArtJaws.com in Paris, France, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, in Beijing, China, Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, USA, Da Vinci Creative Biennial at Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture - Seoul Art Space Geumchen in Seoul, Korea, Vitenparken in As, Norway, Eyebeam in New York, USA, Boston Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA, Waterfall Mansion & Gallery in New York, USA, and many other places.

He did artist residencies at Eyebeam, Seed, and recently was part of 7x7 (Rhizome/New Museum). His work has been featured in many media outlets such as New York Times,^[26][27] The Atlantic,^[28] and Wired magazine.^[29] He has collaborated with many artists, notably Vik Muniz^[30] and Anicka Yi.^[31]

References