Gilberto Esparza, Plantas autofotosinthéticas [Autophotosynthetic Plants], 2013–14 (detail). Installation view: Symbionts: Contemporary Artists and the Biosphere, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, 2022. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Graduate Student Talk: Madeline Moore
February 23, 2023
Join Madeline Moore, a doctoral student in MIT's interdepartmental Microbiology program, for a conversation with a new perspective on the work of Gilberto Esparza.
In this talk, Madeline will discuss the diversity of microbial metabolism, such as the electricity generating metabolism that powers the microbial fuel cells in Plantas autofotosinthéticas, as well as the importance of microbial communities in maintaining ecosystem functions. She will present parallels from her research in bacterial directed evolution that mirror Gilberto Esparza’s work, exploring the intersection of technology and the natural world to highlight the value of thoughtful bio-inspired design.
This will be a hybrid event with a live video that can be streamed here at 5:30 PM.
About the Speaker
Madeline Moore is a synthetic biologist exploring ways to shape microbial communities using evolutionary engineering and liquid handling automation. Her work utilizes directed evolution, a technique that involves recapitulating the process of evolution in the lab to create organisms with complex traits. Presently, she is working to apply this approach in high-throughput to develop bacterial strains with unique metabolic capabilities for use as tools in microbiome engineering. Madeline is a doctoral student in MIT’s interdepartmental Microbiology program, where she works as part of the Sculpting Evolution group at the MIT Media Lab. Before beginning her graduate work, she studied the ecology of microbial communities in natural systems to explore their role in shaping climate systems and potential as tools for assessing water pollution. Madeline holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Environmental Biology from UC Berkeley.
Graduate Student Talks
MIT graduate students explore current exhibitions at the List Center through the lens of their own research, background, and interests. Join us for this interdisciplinary lecture series where we dive into how art and research are overlapping on MIT’s campus.
