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

Tal Danino
AwardsTED Fellow, Department of Defense Era of Hope Scholar
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of California, Los Angeles (B.S., 2005) University of California, San Diego (PhD., 2011)
ThesisSynthetic gene oscillators and their applications
Doctoral advisorJeff Hasty
Academic work
DisciplineSynthetic Biology
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology Columbia University
Websitetaldanino.com

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

  1. "Synthetic Biological Systems Laboratory".
  2. "Columbia University Biomedical Engineering: Tal Danino". June 8, 2017.
  3. "Programming bacteria to detect cancer (and maybe treat it)". TED.com. May 7, 2015.
  4. Danino, Tal (November 29, 2023). Synthetic gene oscillators and their applications (Thesis). UC San Diego.
  5. Danino, Tal; Mondragón-Palomino, Octavio; Tsimring, Lev; Hasty, Jeff (2010). "A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks". Nature. 463 (7279): 326–330. Bibcode:2010Natur.463..326D. doi:10.1038/nature08753. PMC 2838179. PMID 20090747.
  6. Danino, Tal; Prindle, Arthur; Kwong, Gabriel A.; Skalak, Matthew; Li, Howard; Allen, Kaitlin; Hasty, Jeff; Bhatia, Sangeeta N. (2015). "Programmable probiotics for detection of cancer in urine". Science Translational Medicine. 7 (289): 289ra84. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aaa3519. PMC 4511399. PMID 26019220.
  7. Din, M. Omar; Danino, Tal; Prindle, Arthur; Skalak, Matt; Selimkhanov, Jangir; Allen, Kaitlin; Julio, Ellixis; Atolia, Eta; Tsimring, Lev S.; Bhatia, Sangeeta N.; Hasty, Jeff (2016). "Synchronized cycles of bacterial lysis for in vivo delivery". Nature. 536 (7614): 81–85. Bibcode:2016Natur.536...81D. doi:10.1038/nature18930. PMC 5048415. PMID 27437587.
  8. Doshi, Anjali; Shaw, Marian; Tonea, Ruxandra; Moon, Soonhee; Minyety, Rosalía; Doshi, Anish; Laine, Andrew; Guo, Jia; Danino, Tal (July 2023). "Engineered bacterial swarm patterns as spatial records of environmental inputs". Nature Chemical Biology. 19 (7): 878–886. doi:10.1038/s41589-023-01325-2. PMID 37142806. S2CID 246242136.
  9. Deb, Dhruba; Zhu, Shu; LeBlanc, Michael J.; Danino, Tal (November 24, 2022). "Assessing chemotherapy dosing strategies in a spatial cell culture model". Frontiers in Oncology. 12. doi:10.3389/fonc.2022.980770. PMC 9729937. PMID 36505801.
  10. Gurbatri, Candice R.; Arpaia, Nicholas; Danino, Tal (November 25, 2022). "Engineering bacteria as interactive cancer therapies". Science. 378 (6622): 858–864. Bibcode:2022Sci...378..858G. doi:10.1126/science.add9667. PMC 10584033. PMID 36423303.
  11. Deb, Dhruba; Wu, Yangfan; Coker, Courtney; Harimoto, Tetsuhiro; Huang, Ruoqi; Danino, Tal (December 13, 2022). "Design of combination therapy for engineered bacterial therapeutics in non-small cell lung cancer". Scientific Reports. 12 (1): 21551. Bibcode:2022NatSR..1221551D. doi:10.1038/s41598-022-26105-1. PMC 9748036. PMID 36513723.
  12. Savage, Thomas M.; Vincent, Rosa L.; Rae, Sarah S.; Huang, Lei Haley; Ahn, Alexander; Pu, Kelly; Li, Fangda; de los Santos-Alexis, Kenia; Coker, Courtney; Danino, Tal; Arpaia, Nicholas (March 10, 2023). "Chemokines expressed by engineered bacteria recruit and orchestrate antitumor immunity". Science Advances. 9 (10): eadc9436. Bibcode:2023SciA....9C9436S. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adc9436. PMC 9995032. PMID 36888717.
  13. Serebrinsky-Duek, Kineret; Barra, Maria; Danino, Tal; Garrido, Daniel (April 13, 2023). "Engineered Bacteria for Short-Chain-Fatty-Acid-Repressed Expression of Biotherapeutic Molecules". Microbiology Spectrum. 11 (2): e00049-23. doi:10.1128/spectrum.00049-23. PMC 10101121. PMID 36939337.
  14. Geller, Leore T.; Barzily-Rokni, Michal; Danino, Tal; Jonas, Oliver H.; Shental, Noam; Nejman, Deborah; Gavert, Nancy; Zwang, Yaara; Cooper, Zachary A.; Shee, Kevin; Thaiss, Christoph A.; Reuben, Alexandre; Livny, Jonathan; Avraham, Roi; Frederick, Dennie T.; Ligorio, Matteo; Chatman, Kelly; Johnston, Stephen E.; Mosher, Carrie M.; Brandis, Alexander; Fuks, Garold; Gurbatri, Candice; Gopalakrishnan, Vancheswaran; Kim, Michael; Hurd, Mark W.; Katz, Matthew; Fleming, Jason; Maitra, Anirban; Smith, David A.; Skalak, Matt; Bu, Jeffrey; Michaud, Monia; Trauger, Sunia A.; Barshack, Iris; Golan, Talia; Sandbank, Judith; Flaherty, Keith T.; Mandinova, Anna; Garrett, Wendy S.; Thayer, Sarah P.; Ferrone, Cristina R.; Huttenhower, Curtis; Bhatia, Sangeeta N.; Gevers, Dirk; Wargo, Jennifer A.; Golub, Todd R.; Straussman, Ravid (September 15, 2017). "Potential role of intratumor bacteria in mediating tumor resistance to the chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine". Science. 357 (6356): 1156–1160. Bibcode:2017Sci...357.1156G. doi:10.1126/science.aah5043. hdl:1721.1/128660. PMC 5727343. PMID 28912244.
  15. Ozdemir, Tanel; Fedorec, Alex J.H.; Danino, Tal; Barnes, Chris P. (July 2018). "Synthetic Biology and Engineered Live Biotherapeutics: Toward Increasing System Complexity". Cell Systems. 7 (1): 5–16. doi:10.1016/j.cels.2018.06.008. PMID 30048620.
  16. Harimoto, Tetsuhiro; Singer, Zakary S.; Velazquez, Oscar S.; Zhang, Joanna; Castro, Samuel; Hinchliffe, Taylor E.; Mather, William; Danino, Tal (April 30, 2019). "Rapid screening of engineered microbial therapies in a 3D multicellular model". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (18): 9002–9007. Bibcode:2019PNAS..116.9002H. doi:10.1073/pnas.1820824116. PMC 6500119. PMID 30996123.
  17. Chowdhury, Sreyan; Castro, Samuel; Coker, Courtney; Hinchliffe, Taylor E.; Arpaia, Nicholas; Danino, Tal (July 2019). "Programmable bacteria induce durable tumor regression and systemic antitumor immunity". Nature Medicine. 25 (7): 1057–1063. doi:10.1038/s41591-019-0498-z. PMC 6688650. PMID 31270504.
  18. Harimoto, Tetsuhiro; Danino, Tal (November 11, 2019). "Engineering bacteria for cancer therapy". Emerging Topics in Life Sciences. 3 (5): 623–629. doi:10.1042/ETLS20190096. PMC 8056215. PMID 33523173.
  19. Gurbatri, Candice R.; Lia, Ioana; Vincent, Rosa; Coker, Courtney; Castro, Samuel; Treuting, Piper M.; Hinchliffe, Taylor E.; Arpaia, Nicholas; Danino, Tal (February 12, 2020). "Engineered probiotics for local tumor delivery of checkpoint blockade nanobodies". Science Translational Medicine. 12 (530): eaax0876. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aax0876. PMC 7685004. PMID 32051224.
  20. Barra, Maria; Danino, Tal; Garrido, Daniel (March 31, 2020). "Engineered Probiotics for Detection and Treatment of Inflammatory Intestinal Diseases". Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology. 8: 265. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.00265. PMC 7137092. PMID 32296696.
  21. Chien, Tiffany; Jones, Drew R.; Danino, Tal (January 15, 2021). "Engineered Bacterial Production of Volatile Methyl Salicylate". ACS Synthetic Biology. 10 (1): 204–208. doi:10.1021/acssynbio.0c00497. PMID 33331760. S2CID 229301272.
  22. Singer, Zakary S.; Ambrose, Pradeep M.; Danino, Tal; Rice, Charles M. (March 2021). "Quantitative measurements of early alphaviral replication dynamics in single cells reveals the basis for superinfection exclusion". Cell Systems. 12 (3): 210–219.e3. doi:10.1016/j.cels.2020.12.005. PMC 9143976. PMID 33515490.
  23. Chien, Tiffany; Harimoto, Tetsuhiro; Kepecs, Benjamin; Gray, Kelsey; Coker, Courtney; Hou, Nicholas; Pu, Kelly; Azad, Tamjeed; Nolasco, Andoni; Pavlicova, Martina; Danino, Tal (July 29, 2021). "Enhancing the tropism of bacteria via genetically programmed biosensors". Nature Biomedical Engineering. 6 (1): 94–104. doi:10.1038/s41551-021-00772-3. PMC 8956018. PMID 34326488.
  24. Harimoto, Tetsuhiro; Hahn, Jaeseung; Chen, Yu-Yu; Im, Jongwon; Zhang, Joanna; Hou, Nicholas; Li, Fangda; Coker, Courtney; Gray, Kelsey; Harr, Nicole; Chowdhury, Sreyan; Pu, Kelly; Nimura, Clare; Arpaia, Nicholas; Leong, Kam W.; Danino, Tal (August 2022). "A programmable encapsulation system improves delivery of therapeutic bacteria in mice". Nature Biotechnology. 40 (8): 1259–1269. doi:10.1038/s41587-022-01244-y. PMC 9371971. PMID 35301496.
  25. Harimoto, Tetsuhiro; Deb, Dhruba; Danino, Tal (October 2022). "A rapid screening platform to coculture bacteria within tumor spheroids". Nature Protocols. 17 (10): 2216–2239. doi:10.1038/s41596-022-00723-5. PMC 10332800. PMID 35906291.
  26. Ryzik, Melena (January 6, 2015). "Gates Foundation Uses Art to Encourage Vaccination". The New York Times.
  27. Sheets, Hilarie M. (March 4, 2016). "At M.I.T., Science Embraces a New Chaos Theory: Art". The New York Times.
  28. "The Devil Wears Pulsars". The Atlantic. January 29, 2015.
  29. Flaherty, Joe. "A Beautiful Wallpaper Made With Smallpox Vaccine". Wired.
  30. Project, The Creators (August 19, 2014). "[Video] Colonies | Vik Muniz And Tal Danino Turn Living Cells Into Art". Vice.
  31. Stamler, Hannah (March 17, 2015). "The Sights (and Smells) of Anicka Yi's Bacteria Art Show". Vice.
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