Phage research as governance practice: learning from living systems
A doctoral researcher at FIRE examines bacteriophages to understand life's fundamental coupling of form and function — a question with implications for how we design adaptive, living governance systems.
Milena Milovanović, a second-year PhD student at the FIRE Doctoral School, is studying bacteriophages — viruses that infect bacteria — to understand the intrinsic coupling between genotype and phenotype. Her thesis, “Gaining insight to intrinsic phage genotype-phenotype coupling to drive disruptive novel protein,” sits at the intersection of molecular biology and fundamental questions about what constitutes life.
The work matters beyond the lab bench. Understanding how simple biological systems couple information with function — how genetic code translates directly into adaptive behavior — offers a model for governance systems that can respond to changing conditions without top-down control. Phages are minimal entities that nevertheless exhibit sophisticated adaptation, a quality that designed institutions often lack.
FIRE (Frontiers in Innovation, Research and Education) represents a mode of doctoral training that connects disciplinary expertise with broader planetary questions. When not researching, Milovanović tends plants and walks Paris — practices of attention that mirror the close observation her work requires. The Garden’s thesis holds that governance must be felt and tested in the world, not merely theorized; studying how living systems actually work, at the molecular level, is one way to ground that practice.