Columbia University in the City of New York
Tal Danino
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
Northwest Corner Building
Tal Danino’s research explores the emerging field of synthetic biology, focusing on engineering bacteria gene circuits to create novel behaviors that have biomedical applications.
Research Interests
Synthetic biology, engineering gene circuits in microbes, cancer therapeutics and diagnostics, mathematical modeling of gene network dynamics, microfluidics, biosensor applications.The interaction of microbes and tumors is a major target of his work, where DNA sequences and synthetic biology approaches are used to program bacteria as diagnostics and therapeutics in cancer. Danino also brings this science outside the laboratory as a TED Fellow and through science-art projects.
Danino received his BS in physics, chemistry, and math from the University of California in Los Angeles in 2005 and earned his PhD in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego in 2011. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 2011 – 2015. He joined the faculty of Columbia Biomedical Engineering in 2016 and is a member of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and Data Science Institute.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011 – 2015
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Columbia Engineering, 2020 –
- Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Columbia Engineering, 2016 – 2020
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- Member, Data Science Institute, Columbia University, 2016 - present
- Member, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University, 2016 - present
HONORS & AWARDS
- California Governor’s Math and Science Scholar
- Arthur Beckman Undergraduate Research Scholar
- Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DoE CSGF)
- Misrock Postdoctoral Fellowship
- NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA)
- New England Biolabs Passion in Science Award
- TED Fellow
- NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)
- Department of Defense Era of Hope Scholar Award
- Breast Cancer Research Foundation-AACR Career Development Award
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Chien, T.*, Doshi, A.*, Danino, T. Synthetic Biology Advances in Bacterial Cancer Therapies. Current Opinions in Systems Biology (in press) (2017)
- Geller, L,*, Barzily-Rokni, M.*, Danino, T., Shee, K., Thaiss, C., Livny, R., Avraham, R., Barczak, A., Zwang, Y., Mosher, C., Smith, D., Chatman, K., Skalak, M., Bu, J., Cooper, Z., Tompers, F., Ligorio, M., Qian, Z., Muzumdar, M., Michaud, M., Mandinova, A., Garrett, W., Jacks, T., Ogino, S., Ferrone, C., Thayer, S., Warger, J., Trauger, S., Johnston, S., Huttenhower, C., Gevers, D., Bhatia, S., Golub, T. Tumor-microbiome mediated resistance to gemcitabine. Science (in press) (2017)
- Moon, S.*, Fritz, I.*, Singer, Z.*, Danino, T. Controlling spatial patterning of bacteria via screen printing. 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (2016)
- Din, O., Danino, T., Prindle, A., Skalak, M., Selimkhanov, J., Allen, K., Julio, E., Atolia, A., Tsimring, L., Bhatia, S., Hasty, J. Synchronized cycles of bacterial lysis for in vivo delivery. Nature (2016)
- Luna, J., Scheel, T., Danino, T., Shaw, K., Takacs, C., Mele, A., Fak, J., Nishiuchi, E., Cantanese, M., Rice, C., Darnell, R. Hepatitis C virus RNA functionally sequesters miR-122. Cell (2015)
- Danino, T.*, Prindle, A.*, Kwong, G., Skalak, M., Li, H., Allen, K., Hasty, J., and Bhatia, S. Programmable Probiotics: Gene Circuit Chaperones for Non-invasive Cancer Detection. Sci. Transl. Med (2015)
- Danino, T., Lo, J., Prindle, A., Hasty, J., and Bhatia, S. In vivo gene expression dynamics from tumor-targeted bacteria. ACS Synthetic biology 1(10), 465-470 (2012)
- Prindle, A.*, Samayoa, P.*, Razinkov, I., Danino, T., Tsimring, L.S. and Hasty, J. Sensing array of radically coupled genetic biopixels. Nature 481, 39-44 (2011)
- Mondragon-Palomino, O., Danino, T., Selimkhanov, J., Tsimring, L.S., and Hasty, J. Entrainment of a population of synthetic genetic oscillators. Science 333(6047), 1315-1319 (2011)
- Danino, T.*, Mondragon-Palomino, O.*, Tsimring, L., and Hasty, J. A synchronized quorum of genetic clocks. Nature 463, 326-330 (2010)