Ginkgo Creative Residency 2018: Yasaman Sheri

The Ginkgo Creative Residency exists as a platform that genuinely integrates innovative, creative practice with the technical and industrial realm of synthetic biology curated by Ginkgo Bioworks and Faber Futures. Our 2018 resident, Yasaman Sheri, explored the design of biosensors in synthetic biology and their potential for intersection with human interaction, bringing her expertise as a designer of sensory experiences and interactive interfaces to this world of biosensors.

Sensing the environment is fundamental to living things, whether bacteria sensing the gradients of chemical resources in their watery surroundings, snakes sensing the heat of their prey to “see” in the dark, or humans smelling a delicious meal simmering in the kitchen. Biosensors are also fundamental to the study of biochemistry and the practice of synthetic biology: our earliest understandings of gene expression comes from studying the system that the bacterium E. coli uses to sense and respond to the presence of lactose sugars, which in turn is used every day in labs to control the function of synthetic gene circuits. Read more about Yasaman’s experience at Ginkgo Bioworks and the project she developed as our 2018 residency here.