Agar art is created using living microorganisms in a petri dish. Naturally colorful microbes or even genetically modified ones can be used for the canvas. For the past 10 years, ASM (American Society for Microbiology) has held the annual Agar Art contest. Entries have been featured worldwide including in displays, podcasts, and media outlets.
The contest saw a record-breaking 445 submissions from all over the world. The theme “What Brings You Joy?” proved to be an inspiring theme for global agar artists, and artists happily took this assignment with gusto.
The winner of the professional category was submitted by Jeeyoung Lee, a grad student at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea with her entry “Petri Dish Jazz Club.” Her entry features four strains of Bacillus, Janthinobacterium lividum, Pedobacter ginsenosidimutans and thealga Parachlorella kessleri. These bacteria were sourced from extreme locales, including Korea oceans, soil from Greenland, and polar research stations Dasan Station and King Sejong Station.
Taking second place in this category with “The Path of Discovery” is Elsa Fristot, a post-doc at Centre de Biologie Structurale in Montpellier, France. Presented as a triptych, her submission features travel, her work in synthetic biology, and observing nature. She used genetically modified bacteria that expressed fluorescent proteins of various colors. Dots were achieved by placing drops of bacterial cultures with a micropipette. Photograph was taken under the UV light to reveal the stunning result.
Rounding out the top 3 is an entry from Jamisha Francis, a grad student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn for her entry “Frenchie in Black.” This entry reflects her love of dogs and the movie “Men in Black.” Her creation features uropathogenic Escherichia coli, Candida spp. Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus.
We applaud these agar artists, and are already looking forward to next year's submissions.
For more contest winners, check out the following link:
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