Art Center College of Design
Against Nature, Spring 2013
Co-taught a three week module on design and biotechnology for Media Design Practices Lab-track graduate students
(PDF of Reading Syllabus).
University of California, Los Angeles
Guest Lectures and Workshops for Design|Media Arts Honors Courses in Biotech and Art
- (Valentines Day 2013) Chemical Romance: Food, Love, and Science
- (April 2012) Sensual Engineering: Taste, Smell, and Biotechnology
- (January 2012) Microbial Interactions
UCLA Art|Science NanoLab, Summer 2012
An intensive two-week course for high school students combining art and science through lecture, hands–on workshops,
and field trips.
UCLA Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering 145/245: Molecular Biotechnology for Engineers, Fall 2011
Selected topics in molecular biology that form foundation of biotechnology and biomedical
industry today. Topics include recombinant DNA technology, molecular research tools,
manipulation of gene expression, directed mutagenesis and protein engineering, DNA-based
diagnostics and DNA microarrays, antibody and protein-based diagnostics, genomics and
bioinformatics, isolation of human genes, gene therapy, and tissue engineering.
Harvard iGEM
I was a teaching fellow for the Harvard undergraduate team participating in the International
Genetically Engineered Machines competition in 2008 and 2010, mentoring the team in the lab as they designed and built
their projects.
2010
The Harvard iGarden is a venture into
plant engineering. Our aim is to create a toolkit
for the cultivation of a personalized garden containing features introduced through
synthetic biology. In addition to a genetic fence
designed to prevent the spread of
introduced genetic material, we have developed three independent features to be included
in this toolkit – inclusion of novel flavors, knockdown of plant allergens, and
modification of petal color. All parts are BioBrick compatible and introduced into plants
through agrobacterium-mediated transformation, using existing plant vectors modified with
the BioBrick multiple cloning site. The Harvard iGarden, beyond being an application of
the BioBrick system to plant engineering, is an effort to raise public awareness of
synthetic biology, production of food, and how the two can intertwine. We envision the
iGarden as a medium through which the non-scientist can see the power and potential of
synthetic biology and apply it to everyday life.
Part of the project was published in the Journal of Biological Engineering: Boyle PM, Burrill DR, Inniss MC, Agapakis CM, Deardon A, DeWerd JG, Gedeon MA, Quinn JY, Paull ML, Raman AM, Theilmann MR, Wang L, Winn JC, Medvedik O, Schellenberg K, Haynes KA, Viel A, Brenner TJ, Church GM, Shah JV, and Silver PA. "A BioBrick Compatible Strategy for Genetic Modification of Plants." Journal of Biological Engineering, 2012, 6:8.
2008
Our project sought to combine the detecting
capabilities of bacteria with the speed and
ubiquity of electricity by creating an inducible system in Shewanella oneidensis MR–1
with an electrical output, allowing for the direct integration of this biosensor with
electrical circuits via microbial fuel cells.
MIT High School Studies Program
Designed an co-taught a five-week course for high school enrichment program in the spring of 2010.