I’m a synthetic biologist because I believe in the tremendous power of biology to transform the way we make technology. I’m an artist because I believe that science and technology are political, shaped by human needs, biases, and emotions. In my work, I seek out ways to blur the boundaries drawn between nature and technology and between science and society, to practice a different kind of engineering that better takes into account the human and cultural. In the lab, I’ve worked on enzymes involved in the production of biofuels, ecological design principles for synthetic biology, and the evolution of microbial communities in the soil. As an artist, I’ve mapped the microbial diversity of California, isolated halophilic bacteria from the Salton Sea, and made cheese from bacteria living on human skin.

For the past five years, I’ve worked as the creative director of Ginkgo Bioworks, a synthetic biology company based in Boston. The ability to program life with synthetic biology has the potential to transform medicine, agriculture, and how we grow nearly everything. This power means that biotechnology is incredibly polarizing and poses challenges for communication, ethics, and governance. As creative director and head of the sociotechnical studio, I engage with people, policies, and potential futures involved in synthetic biology, working for more open, equitable, and renewable technologies. My work takes many forms, from a long-term artistic collaboration to produce the scent of an extinct flower, to policies promoting diversity and transparency, to a magazine that asks “what if we could grow anything?”