Synthetic Biological Systems Lab

Selected News

News

2024

• Highlight in AACR: From The Bench: Jonathan Pabón, PhD

• Highlight in CDMRP: Programmable Probiotics for Targeted Breast Cancer Therapy

• Our work on engineering probiotics to detect and treat colorectal cancer in Nature Communications!

  See paper here: Colorectal cancer detection and treatment with engineered probiotics

• Beautiful Bacteria -> a book curating our lab's bacterial art is now out
  News highlights:

  • Columbia News: Finding Beauty in the World of Microbes

  • New York Times: Glorious Germs, Ready for Their Close-Up

2023

• Our review on bacterial therapies at the interface of synthetic biology and nanomedicine in Nature Reviews Bioengineering!

  See our paper here: Bacterial therapies at the interface of synthetic biology and nanomedicine

• Our work on engineering tumor homing probiotics to improve CAR-T cell targeting of solid tumors is out now in Science!
  See paper here: Probiotic-guided CAR-T cells for solid tumor targeting

  Press releases:

  • Nature Reviews Drug Discovery: Bacteria tag tumours for CAR-T cell attack
  • Nature Biotechnology Research Highlights: A bacterial assist for CAR-T cells
  • ScienceAdviser: Engineered bacteria + CAR-T cells: A dynamic duo to crush cancer?
  • Science Perspectives: Engineered bacteria guide T cells to tumors
  • Columbia News: Engineered Bacteria Paint Targets on Tumors for Cancer-killing T Cells to See

• Zak Singer and Jonathan Pabon’s preprint is online! Engineered bacteria launch and control an oncolytic virus

• Nature Reviews Bioengineering: Bacterial therapies at the interface of synthetic biology and nanomedicine

• Our work on engineering bacterial patterns as visible biosensor readouts for heavy metals is out now in Nature Chemical Biology!
  See paper here: Engineered bacterial swarm patterns as spatial records of environmental inputs

• Press release for bacterial patterns as visible biosensors that record environmental signals

  • Columbia News: New Method Uses Engineered Bacteria and AI to Sense and Record Environmental Signals

• Candice Gurbatri’s preprint is online! Colorectal cancer detection and treatment with engineered probiotics

• Our collaboration on how bacteria was used to release chemokines to treat tumors is out on Science Advances!
  See paper here: Chemokines expressed by engineered bacteria recruit and orchestrate antitumor immunity

• Our collaboration on creating genetic systems that could function as a diagnostic tool for measuring SCFAs and as delivery vehicles for biotherapeutic molecules is out on Microbiology Spectrum!
  See paper here: Engineered bacteria for short-chain-fatty-acid-repressed expression of biotherapeutic molecules

2022

• Our review as part of Science magazine’s special issue on cell engineering: Engineering bacteria as interactive cancer therapies

• Our work on bacteria spheroid coculture is out now in Nature Protocols!
  See paper here: A rapid screening platform to coculture bacteria within tumor spheroids

• Barnard feature on our undergraduate student Stefani Shoreibah’s work: Cancer Researcher/Artist Stefani Alexis Shoreibah ’21

• Cancer Research Institute article: Engineering Bacteria to Improve Cancer Immunotherapy with CRI Lloyd J. Old STAR Tal Danino features our lab’s research

• Anjali Doshi’s preprint is online! Engineered bacterial swarm patterns as spatial records of environmental inputs

• Nature Biomedical Engineering News & Views: Bacterial couriers as cancer vaccines

• Anjali Doshi and Marian Shaw’s preprint is online! A deep learning pipeline for segmentation of Proteus mirabilis colony patterns.

2021

• Nature Chemical Biology News & Views: CAR-T cells SEAK help from enzymes.

• Our collaboration on how cancer-associated fibroblasts play an important role in colorectal cancer is out today in Gastroenterology!
  See paper here: The Origin and Contribution of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Colorectal Carcinogenesis. Gastroenterology

• Tetsu Harimoto and Jaeseung Hahn’s preprint is online! A programmable probiotic encapsulation system enhances therapeutic delivery in vivo (bioRxiv)

• Our work on engineered biosensor for bacterial targeting in vivo is out now in Nature Biomedical Engineering!
  See paper here: Enhancing the tropism of bacteria via genetically programmed biosensors

• Our work on studying viral replication at the sing-cell level is out now in Cell Systems!
  See paper here: Quantitative measurements of early alphaviral replication dynamics in single cells reveals the basis for superinfection exclusion

2020

• Our work on engineering bacteria for production of volatile methyl salicylate is now out on ACS Synthetic Biology!
  See paper here: Engineered Bacterial Production of Volatile Methyl Salicylate

• Our work on designer probiotics for cancer immunotherapy is out in Science Translational Medicine!

  See paper here: Engineered probiotics for local tumor delivery of checkpoint blockade nanobodies

• Press release on designer probiotics for cancer immunotherapy

  • Nature Medicine Research Highlights: Delivering immunotherapy with bacteria

  • Columbia News: Designer probiotic treatment for cancer immunotherapy

  • C&EN: Bacteria producing checkpoint inhibitors shrink tumors in mice

  • GEN: Engineered Probiotic Bacteria Deliver Anticancer Nanobodies to Regress Tumors in Mice

  • BBC Science Focus: Seek and destroy: beneficial bacteria programmed to fight cancer

• National Cancer Institute article Off Target: Investigating the Abscopal Effect as a Treatment for Cancer features our lab’s research

2019

• Watch our TED-Ed lesson on Hacking bacteria to fight disease

• Read about Sreyan Chowdhury’s work in Nature Medicine’s end of year feature

• Tiffany Chien and Tetsu Harimoto’s preprint is online! Multiplexed biosensors for precision bacteria tropism in vivo (bioRxiv)

• Our review paper (Harimoto et al.) is published in Emerging Topics in Life Sciences

• Our work on programmable bacteria for immunotherapeutic delivery is out in Nature Medicine!

  See paper here: Programmable bacteria induce durable tumor regression and systemic antitumor immunity

• Press release on programmable bacteria for immunotherapeutic delivery

  • Nature Medicine News and Views: Programmable bacteria as cancer therapy

  • New York Times: New Weapons Against Cancer: Millions of Bacteria Programmed to Kill

  • Columbia News: Bacteria Engineered as Trojan Horse for Cancer Immunotherapy

  • Recommendations on F1000; Research Highlight in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

• Our collaboration with Barnes Lab on plasmid stabilizing mechanisms is out in iScience!

  See paper here: Two New Plasmid Post-segregational Killing Mechanisms for the Implementation of Synthetic Gene Networks in Escherichia coli

• Our work on engineered bacteria in 3-D spheroids is out in PNAS!

  See paper here: Rapid screening of engineered microbial therapies in a 3-D multicellular model

• Press release on engineered microbial therapies in a 3-D multicellular model

  • Columbia News: Bacterial Therapy in a Dish

• Our lab hosted Columbia’s first Biohackathon with Lars Dietrich (Biology) and David Benjamin (GSAPP)

• Danino lab receives NSF CAREER Award

• Danino lab awarded Emerson Collective Cancer Research Fund with Dr. Nick Arpaia

2018

• Danino Lab collaborates with Liberty Science Center for Microbes Rule! exhibit

• Tetsu Harimoto’s preprint is online! Rapid screening of engineered microbial therapies in a 3-D multicellular model (bioRxiv)

• New York Times article Scientists Are Retooling Bacteria to Cure Disease features Tal and our lab’s research

• Our collaborative works with the Barnes group at UCL are online:
  Synthetic Biology and Engineered Live Biotherapeutics: Toward Increasing System Complexity. (Cell Systems)
  Two new plasmid post-segregational killing mechanisms for the implementation of synthetic gene networks in E. coli (bioRxiv)

• Dr. Tal Danino awarded ALCF-VAPF Young Innovators Team Awards for Lung Cancer Research with Dr. Nick Arpaia.

• Postdoc Zakary Singer is Awarded NIH Grant F32

• PhD students Candice Gurbatri and Anjali Doshi are awarded NSF GRFPs

• Our lab is awarded Vagelos Precision Medicine Award with Dr. Nick Arpaia 

2017

• Our collaboration on intratumoral bacteria in pancreatic patients is out today in Science!
  See paper here: Potential role of intratumor bacteria in mediating tumor resistance to the chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine.

• Press release on intratumor bacteria

  • The Atlantic: How Bacteria Could Protect Tumors From Anticancer Drugs
    New Scientist: Tumour bacteria sabotage chemotherapy by destroying cancer drugs

• Danino Lab awarded DoD $2.5M Era of Hope Scholar Award.

• Current Opinions in Systems Biology publication (Chien et al.) is published.

• TED Blog article The Most Beautiful Bacteria You'll Ever See.

2016

• 3DP+ publication (Moon et al.) and cover art published today! Congrats to all.

• Our cover art featured on Columbia Engineering magazine

• Nature publication on Synchronized cycles of bacterial lysis for in vivo delivery

• Press release on synchronized bacteria drug-delivery

  • Columbia News: Professor Tal Danino Programs Bacteria to Destroy Cancer Cells
    Nature: Synthetic biology: Bacteria synchronized for drug delivery
    Cell Systems: Synthetic Bacterial Lysis for Cancer Therapy
    MIT Press: Cancer-fighting bacteria
    The Scientist: Arming Synthetic Bacteria Against Cancer
    ScienceBlog: Synthetic Biology Used to Limit Bacterial Growth and Coordinate Drug Release

• Wall Street Journal article on Vik Muniz's experimental school in Rio de Janeiro's Vidigal favela, Escola Vidigal. Our lab is working on educational programs using science, art, & technology to visualize the path a bacteria takes through the human body.

• The Creators Project article on the exhibit Microuniverses at Eyebeam.

• Our image highlighted on TheScientist's Image of the Day.

2015

• Tal selected as one of Cool Hunting's 25 List. The CH25 is a showcase of creators and innovators from a broad range of disciplines who are currently working to drive the world forward.

• Science Translational Medicine article on programmable probiotics for detection of cancer in urine

• Press on Programmable Probiotics for cancer detection in the urine.

  • MIT Press: Diagnosing cancer with help from bacteria
    Popular Science: Mutant bacteria will test you for disease and color your pee accordingly
    Los Angeles Times: Talented bacteria detect cancer, diabetes
    The Scientist: Next Generation: Souped-up Probiotics Pinpoint Cancer
    Science: Engineered bacteria detect cancer and diabetes in urine
    U.S. News & World Report: Helpful bacteria may help detect cancers that have spread to liver
    Science Daily: Diagnosing cancer with luminescent bacteria: Engineered probiotics detect tumors in liver
    BBC News: Bacteria sensors ‘detect diabetes and cancer’

• Mentioned in Wired UK: 21 inspiring TED Fellows changing the world in 2015

• TED Blog interview about our work and art.

• Talk from TED2015 on "Programming bacteria to detect cancer (and maybe treat it)" is live on TED.com website today!

• New article we collaborated on in Cell: Hepatitis C Virus RNA Functionally Sequesters miR-122

• BBC: TED 2015 - Bacteria programmed to find tumours

• Fast Company article on how programmable probiotics could soon let you know if you have cancer -- from the color of your pee!

• Our work and commentary featured in the article, A Beautiful Wallpaper made with Smallpox Vaccine on WIRED.com

• Our Fashion deScience collaboration mentioned in the article, The Devil Wears Pulsars in The Atlantic.

• Another article on the Gates Foundation work in Boston Magazine.

• A New York Times article on a great vaccine campaign from the Gates Foundation that we are featured in.