Rita Blaik is a UCLA PhD student in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. She received her B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering with a specialization in biomaterials from the University of California, Irvine. During that time, she co-found UCI MatSci, a student chapter of the nationally recognized society Material Advantage, which began an outreach program to local high school students. At UCLA she is a proud fellow of the IGERT Clean Energy for Green Industry fellowship and works with professor Bruce Dunn on biological fuel cell systems and architectures. She continues to develop her science outreach career; since 2008 she has been an instructor with the Sci|Art NanoLab and as of fall 2011, is the Art|Sci Center Networking and Outreach Coordinator. She is also a photographer, incorporating her point of view as a materials scientist by using photographic techniques to transform the apparent state of materials. http://ritablaik.com/

Romie Littrell's research is focused on the exchange of tools and methods between artists and scientists. In the present he is a graduate student in the Biomedical Engineering Dept. at UCLA. He received his BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from UC Berkeley. Since then he has engaged in a wide array of biological research including maize genetics, cornea tissue engineering, microfluidic bioreactors, and cell-chip interfaces. His current research focuses on creating non-institutional laboratories and abstracting biological techniques to facilitate those in unrelated fields to perform advanced biology. Romie is also very interested in synthetic biology, is the founder of SoCal DIYBio, and was a grad advisor to the 2007 MIT iGEM team.

Christina Agapakis is a biological designer whose research focuses on engineering new relationships between organisms, from the bacteria in our food and on our skin to photosynthetic animals. She received her Ph.D. in synthetic biology from Harvard in 2011 and is currently a research fellow and lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UCLA. She explores the connections between art, design, science, and engineering as a Synthetic Aesthetics resident and on her blog at Scientific American. http://agapakis.com/

Amisha Gadani is an LA-based artist interested in curious creatures and their unique adaptations, from swarming patterns and elegant defense mechanisms, to superorganisms and animals of the deep sea. She makes kinetic sculptures, drawings, videos, and interactive wearables. On-going projects include her collection of animal-inspired defensive dresses and her set of "animal homunculus" drawings. Amisha received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, worked in science education and exhibit development at the Exploratorium Museum, and currently works remotely as artist researcher for the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at CMU as well as artist in resident for both the UCLA fish-focused evolutionary biology lab of Dr. Michael Alfaro and the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics. She is developing a series of artworks inspired by her experiences in the Alfaro Lab and at ISG for an exhibition planned for the fall of 2012. http://amishagadani.com/

John Carpenter is an interactive digital artist and designer whose work explores natural systems, complex data, and qualitative spaces. Based in Santa Monica, he consults with several creative technology companies including Morphosis Architects and Synthesis Technology Integration, and is a visiting professor in the Multimedia Arts Department at Loyola Marymount University. John earned his MFA from the department of Design | Media Arts at UCLA (2009) and recently exhibited work at the 84th Annual Academy Awards, ACME. and Young Projects. John worked as an interactive designer at the California Institute of Technology’s Brain and Biological Imaging Centers with Scott Fraser, Russ Jacobs and davidkremersfrom 2001-2005. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 2001 with a BS in Molecular and Cellular Biology and minors in Studio Art and Psychology.

Marc R. Dusseiller, Ph.D. is a transdisciplinary scholar, lecturer for micro and nanotechnology  (FHNW, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland), cultural facilitator and artist. He works in an integral way to combine science, art and education. He performs DIY (do-it-yourself) workshops in lo-fi electronics, hardware hacking, microscopy, music and robotics. He is co-organizing Dock18, Room for Mediacultures, DIY* festival (Zürich, Switzerland), KIBLIX 2011 (Maribor, Slovenia), workshops for artists, schools and children as the president of the Swiss Mechatronic Art Society, SGMK. As a co-founder of "Hackteria | Open Source Biological Art", he is currently developing means to perform bio- and nanotechnology research and dissemination in a DIY fashion in kitchens, ateliers and in developing countries. Hackteria | Open Source Biological Art www.hackteria.org

Aisen Caro Chacin is a regenerating composition of cells that collaborate to form an independent unit, despite of this precarious human condition. Together they compose a she, a Venezuelan, a Spaniard,an American, and an animal, whose patterns of migration are not based on seasons, but rather chance,chaos, and opportunity. Her curiosity drove her to a career in the Arts, a true trans-disciplinary practice that allows her to dabble between fields and still remain in a coherent path. Currently her sponge is being filled by the MFA Design and Technology program, that will culminate in 2013. Her intent has been to question the function and essence of art in order to explore dislocated, un-plotted, un-assigned ideas and social situations. She is also a bucket of ideas open to merge and exchange with other buckets to create cooperative k r o w.

Megan May Daalder is a self-styled guinea pig using performance, video, and scientific curiosity to investigate life on Earth. Her main interest is in creatively exploring the edges of the human brain and body to speculate about future possibilities. At the moment she is collaborating with neuroscientists at USC to research the persistent sense of shared identity she discovered through her Mirrorbox installation and developing a choreography for one human and several robotic arms together with Kruysman | Proto in Los Angeles. Megan May has a BA from UCLA’s Design Media Arts department, but most of what she knows has been learned through extracurricular experience. She's exhibited and performed in art galleries and media arts festivals around the world and completed a feature length documentary which has recently been nominated as 'Best Archive Preservation Project' by FIAT/IFTA in the Netherlands. Check out Proofsofconcept.com to see things.