Who would win in a competition, a hamster or bacteria? Place your bets, because we’re going to tell the story of this epic science showdown. Danielle Tullman-Ercek is a synthetic biologist trying to find a better way to make life-saving medicine. To do it, she’s engineering a bacteria cell to compete with a medicine-making hamster cell. Listen to find out what if Danielle and her bacteria have what it takes to win. What’s a hamster cell doing making medicine, anyway?!

If you engineered your own bacteria, what would it make and why? Draw a picture and email it to us at [email protected]! To learn more about synthetic biology, check out our blog.

Want to learn more about cell biology and engineering bacteria? We have a special bonus interview episode with Danielle for our Patreon members! For only $1/month, you’ll get twice the Tumble goodness to dive deeper into all our new episodes. Pledge here: patreon.com/tumblepodcast.