Tal Danino

The Danino Lab

Creating a sculpture out of personalized bacteria is just one way Tal Danino-a synthetic biologist in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia- encourages student to become passionate about STEM! The Danino lab focuses on engineering gene circuits in microbes, cancer therapeutics, biosensor applications and more! Most importantly, the Danino lab conducts extensive and diverse outreach programs that engage young students in STEM fields. This includes partnering with local schools to create a bacteria video game named Syndemic that teaches students about microbiology and providing hands-on activities such as Grow Your Own Bacteria that allow students spend time in the lab growing their own bacteria and watching it transform. This also includes outreach completed abroad in places such as Brazil and India where children build sculptures that mimic the human body and young scholars study their own bacteria. The Danino lab also uniquely features visual arts created from bacteria, including PETRI, Colonies, and more.