Addressing global challenges by expanding biotech access is focus of ISU lecture

AMES, Iowa - What if changing the genetic material in viruses, plants or yeasts gave them new characteristics that can be used to address challenges in medicine, agriculture and engineering?

It's possible, but David Sun Kong, a synthetic biologist and director of MIT Media Lab's Community Biotechnology Initiative, says advancing the field of synthetic biology will require new models of knowledge production, much like the homebrew computing groups that gave way to Apple.

Designing the future in biotech will be the focus of Kong's presentation, "How to Grow (Almost) Anything: The Use and Future of Synthetic Biology," at 6 p.m. Oct. 24, in the Memorial Union Great Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Kong says advancements in the field will require diverse, distributed groups doing vital work away from traditional labs. He champions grassroots labs away from college, federal and corporate structures, designed specifically to be available, and appealing, to people who might never encounter biotechnology.

Kong is the director of the MIT Media Lab's Community Biotechnology Initiative. His research explores the multidisciplinary domains of synthetic biology, biological design and art, collective intelligence and movement building and STEAM learning. Kong also is co-founder and managing faculty of "How to Grow (Almost) Anything," an MIT course on synthetic biology that reaches labs in places like Switzerland, Latin America and Japan, yet still demonstrates how to perform fruitful genomic experiments.

Kong's work has been covered by The Washington Post, Science, Showtime and several other media outlets. He has performed as a DJ, beat-boxer, vocalist and rapper at hundreds of venues, including South by Southwest, the Staples Center in Los Angeles and Brooklyn Bowl. He teamed up with DJ Jazzy Jeff to make beats from the human microbiome. Kong's photography has been exhibited at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian, the Japanese American National Museum and other museums and galleries across the country.

This lecture will be recorded and available to view for those with an ISU Net-ID on the Available Recordings page approximately 24-36 hours after the conclusion of the event.

The event is sponsored by the ISU Office of Biotechnology, Engineering Leaders of Tomorrow and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by Student Government.