Marta de Menezes is a Portuguese artist (Lisbon, 1975) with a degree in fine arts from the University of Lisbon, a MSt in history of art and visual culture from the University of Oxford, and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Leiden. She has been exploring the intersection between art and biology, working in research laboratories demonstrating that new biological technologies can be used as a new art medium. In 1999 de Menezes created her first biological artwork (Nature?) by modifying the wing patterns of live butterflies. Since then, she has used diverse biological techniques including functional MRI of the brain to create portraits through which the mind can be visualised (Functional portraits, 2002); fluorescent DNA probes to create micro- sculptures in human cell nuclei (nucleArt, 2002); sculptures made of proteins (Proteic portrait, 2002-2007), DNA (Innercloud, 2003; The family, 2004) or incorporating live neurons (Tree of knowledge, 2005) or bacteria (Decon, 2007). Her work has been presented internationally in exhibitions, articles and lectures. She is currently the artistic director of Ectopia, an experimental art laboratory – in Lisbon, and director of Cultivamos Cultura in the South of Portugal.