People of a certain age will remember learning about Kingdom Monera in biology, the realm of single-celled prokaryotic microbes. Monera has been replaced by two separate domains, Bacteria and Archaea. When learning about nature and natural history, sometimes we are guilty of spending most of our time in the macro world when the micro world plays extraordinary roles in physiology. It has been said that humans are just a fancy carrying case for microbes. In collaboration with Baltimore Underground Science Space (BUGSS), we will host a talk by Dr Mehmet (Memo) Berkmen of New England Biolabs who will talk about the natural history of the earth’s tiniest organisms. He will also introduce us to Agar Art – the art of creating living art from microbes growing on an agar substrate in a petri dish ahead of the workshop BUGGS will be offering in July. Get primed for the talk here.
Memo was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1970 and grew up on the campus of Middle Eastern Technical University, during the hectic late ‘70s. His love for research was apparent when he would mix kitchen solutions to make magic potions, though it was not clear on what the magic potions would do. His family moved to Austria, Canada, and back to Austria where he eventually graduated from Vienna International High School. After receiving his education in Biotechnology in the UK, he received his PhD from University of Vienna, but conducted most of his research at the University of Houston. There he learned to love E. coli and the power of genetics. To further his knowledge, Memo was trained as a bacterial geneticist in the laboratory of Professor Jon Beckwith at Harvard Medical School. This training led Memo to NEB where his laboratory has been conducting genetic selections to improve recombinant protein expression in E. coli. His love for microbes of all colors and shapes continues by practicing art made from bacteria and spreading knowledge through workshops and seminars.