INTERNATIONAL GENETICALLY ENGINEERED MACHINES COMPETITION (IGEM)

IGEM is the world's largest educational synthetic biology institution, with 280 teams and more than 2,700 students participating from high-school to overgrad . I currently serve as co-founder and co-chair of a new Hardware Track for the 2015 competition, where engineers and hardware enthusiasts can innovate and develop new tools for synthetic biology. I am also the official IGEM DJ, and recently fulfilled a dream of rocking a party for over a thousand young synthetic biologists! Continue...

SYNBIO LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE ACCELERATOR PROGRAM (LEAP)

In 2012, I was selected as an inaugural fellow for the Synthetic Biology Leadership Accelerator Program. It was a privilege to work and connect with some of the country's rising young leaders in synthetic biology, whose domains ranged from academia to government to art and community. What connected us all was a passion to see synthetic biology emerge as a powerful force for the public good. I currently serve as an adviser and mentor to the new class of fellows.

 SXSWi | #MICROCULTURE: A GAME ON THE HUMAN MICROBIOTA

Welcome microbe! At South by South West Interactive 2015, Colleen Macklin (Parsons Professor, MIT Media Lab Director's Fellow), her amazing graduate students, Kevin Slavin (Media Lab Professor), and I deployed Microculture, a social, card-based game based on the human microbiota. In many ways we are more microbial than human. Yet, popular narratives of microbes are predominantly pathogenic. With Microculture, you, a microbe, must recruit other microbes to grow the largest, most diverse, culture. Good luck microbe!  Continue...

emw | street bio

Biology is humanity's next technology revolution, but who will be empowered to participate? With Street Bio @EMW, we explore the interface between engineered biology and the street—the people, culture, and products that will shape how biology leaves the lab and enters our everyday lives. Join us as we build out Cambridge's first community biology lab! Continue...

medtech for kids

In 2013, I designed and instructed an 8-week Medical Technology program for high school and middle school students with Youth CITIES founder and director Vicky Wu Davis. Students explored innovation and entrepreneurship through a simulated company and prototyped technologies for monitoring traumatic brain injuries. The course was funded by the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, and was expanded in 2014 to multiple municipalities. Continue...

Artscience prize

From 2012-2014, I served as a course advisor, guest lecturer, and juror for the ArtScience Prize, an experience-based model for innovative education for high-school students developed by Harvard Professor David A. Edwards. The artistic theme for 2012-2013 was synthetic biology. Continue...