Undaunted by the unknown
MIT senior Katie Bodner thrives in fields that are full of unanswered questions: She arrived at the Institute with little research experience, and from a family with no scientists, but now a biological engineering major, she has found her place working on projects in synthetic biology, biological-based pharmaceuticals, and programmable vaccines. Bodner was initially intent on pursuing chemical engineering. But after completing course 7.012 (Introductory Biology) — taught by Eric Lander, the MIT professor of biology who also leads the Broad Institute — she recognized that her interests aligned more with engineering cells than chemicals. Her first exposure to synthetic biology came soon after, through MIT’s International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) team, part of a global competition. As a second-semester freshman on the team, she took the lead in developing a cell that could detect and kill other cells that are cancerous. Synthetic biology has two arms: engineering new functionality into existing organisms...