exponential growth

To bring engineered biology to the street, an ecosystem of democratized technologies, products, physical spaces, and mentoring is necessary. And critically, communities must be grown around these areas. It simply isn't enough to build a product or platform; thoughtful consideration must be taken to cultivate an authentic community.

New, intuitive tools are necessary.

In my technical career I've developed processors based on microfluidics that will likely serve as the core "biological processing units" for the future personal "biofabs". These are crucial technologies that can help bridge the gap between institutional biology and the street. At Lincoln, I have established infrastructure for the open-source development and sharing of these technologies, including riding the wave of commodity digital fabrication tools to democratize this hardware. In two graduate courses I have taught at MIT, students used commodity 3D printing to manufacture hardware for DNA assembly and microbial cell culture. A 3D printed biolab is in our near future. As part of the international Genetically Engineered Machines competition (iGEM), I am founding and chairing a new hardware track for students around the world to innovate new hardware for synthetic biology, with an emphasis on accessibility.

Ice incubation after bacterial heat shock. Community bio-hacking @EMW.

But tools are only a part of the picture. As the biological infrastructure is still nascent, physical spaces are critical at this stage.

Where can young people go to safely play with engineered organisms?

I am currently working with Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School to teach "How to Grow Almost Anything," a new course for the international Fab Academy. As part of this process we are converting fab labs into bio labs. At EMW, we are building out a community biology lab in conjunction with our on-going renovations to construct a community fab lab and music studio. We will have infrastructure to remix electrical, mechanical, musical, and of course, living things. But EMW is just one of tens of spaces that are sprouting around the world where communities can begin exploring biological engineering.

I will combine my technical expertise, network and standing in the international synthetic biology community, and passion and experience organizing marginalized communities to establish STREET BIO. The Street Bio group will develop the next generation of biological tools and interfaces for rich interaction in communities around the world. We will work on cutting-edge tools, games, art, and virtual infrastructure. We will develop community programming based on these tools. Crucially, we will deploy these tools into community spaces around the world and network them, harnessing our collective strength. We will plant seeds.

But this is only the beginning.

Cell growth. Drawing by David Goodsell.

Perhaps at heart I am an applied ecologist, a cultivator of organisms, microbial and human. I'm proud of what I've accomplished with my mitotic life. But I, too, am a misfit. In a traditional biological engineering department I would be unable to focus on synthetic biology as a technology for empowering communities. Academic departments focus on publication impact, not community impact. Yet, deep technical expertise and organizing skill is required to deploy such community tools. My work belongs in an institution that can nurture both.

I'm ready for the next step in my growth.

I believe the Media Lab is the only place on earth I can merge my technical and community expertise and amplify it on a global scale.

The time is now. We don't need to follow the path of other technologies. The marginalized communities of the world can and should be activated, now, while our bio-economy is still developing. They must be the agents of change and shape the biological technologies that will impact our world, perhaps more profoundly than any other technology before it.

It's been a journey for me to discover my authentic self, and I feel deeply that the Media Lab is home. Please explore this page and the EMW webpage to learn more about me and my work. The photography you see is my own, and is a way for you to see the world through my eyes. I want to change the world, and I want STREET BIO at the Media Lab to be my vehicle for realizing that dream.

Sincerely,

David Sun Kong, Ph.D.