Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Bagley Hall (BAG)
Campus room: 261
Accessibility Contact: chem59x@uw.edu
Event Types: Lectures/Seminars
Link: https://furstlab.mit.edu/

Bottom-up materials design for and from microbes

Assistant Professor Ariel Furst- Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Host: Matt Golder

Significant effort has been devoted to developing technologies to effectively mimic biological processes, but these methods often fail to replicate the efficiency and selectivity of native systems. We have found that by combining chemistry with the inherent activity of microbes, we can improve upon conventional technologies for environmental remediation and sustainability. We have used native microbes to generate electricity, perform radical polymerization reactions, and fix nitrogen for improved seed germination. Importantly, though, many microbes are delicate and difficult to deploy. We have therefore also engineered bio-derived microbial coatings to enable their delivery to extreme environments. Through these technologies, we have consistently found that the combination of chemistry and biomolecular engineering affords advantages beyond the capabilities of either technology alone.

Ariel Furst is the Paul M. Cook Career Development Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. Her work centers on inventing technologies to improve human and environmental health by making access to resources more equitable. She completed her Ph.D. at Caltech developing non-invasive diagnostics for colorectal cancer and was then an A. O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley, where she developed sensors to monitor environmental pollutants. She is a 2024 NSF CAREER Award recipient, a 2023 NIH New Innovator Awardee, and a 2023 Marion Milligan Mason Awardee. In 2022, she was awarded the MIT UROP Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award for her work with undergraduate researchers. She is passionate about STEM outreach and increasing participation of underrepresented groups in science.