“Tiny Conspiracies: Cell-to-Cell Communication in Bacteria”

Bonnie Bassler, Princeton University

Experience the complete proceedings on-line: streaming video of the lecture is now available.
Video (1:05 minutes)

Bacteria, primitive single-celled organisms, communicate with chemical languages that allow them to synchronize their behavior and thereby act as enormous multicellular organisms. This process, called quorum sensing, enables bacteria to successfully infect and cause disease in plants, animals, and humans. Investigations of the molecular mechanisms underlying quorum sensing are advancing the development of novel strategies to interfere with the process. These strategies form the basis of new therapies to be used as antibiotics.

Bonnie Bassler is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and the Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Bassler received a BS in biochemistry from the University of California at Davis and a PhD in biochemistry from the Johns Hopkins University. She performed postdoctoral work in genetics at the Agouron Institute, and she joined the Princeton faculty in 1994. At Princeton, Bassler directs the Council on Science and Technology and graduate studies in the Department of Molecular Biology, and she teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses. Bassler was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 2002. She was elected to the American Academy of Microbiology in 2002 and made a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2004. She is the 2006 recipient of the American Society for Microbiology’s Eli Lilly and Company Research Award for fundamental contributions to microbiological research. In 2008, Bassler was given Princeton University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

This lecture is designed for the interested layperson and is free and open to the public.