Bonnie Bassler is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and the Squibb Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Bassler received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the…
Research interest: Bacteria communicate with one another to participate in group behaviors via quorum sensing (QS); these behaviors are dependent on the concentration of autoinducers, which are molecules produced and detected by neighboring bacteria. Recently, the Bassler laboratory found that a vibriophage encodes QS system…
Research interest: Quorum sensing is the cell-cell communication process that bacteria use to assess the cell density and species composition of the local environment and coordinate collective behaviors. One quorum-sensing-controlled behavior is the development of spatially-structured, surface-attached bacterial communities called…
Research Interest: Infectious gastroenteritis (IG) is a major cause of morbidity across the world. Vibrio cholerae is a Gram-negative enteric pathogen that causes IG. A vast consortium of bacteria resides in the human gut, collectively called the human gut microbiome. The presence or absence of specific…
Research interest: Bacterial cells communicate and orchestrate collective behaviors through quorum sensing (QS), a process that relies on the production, release, and group-wide detection of extracellular signaling molecules called autoinducers. QS allows individual cells to engage in and coordinate group behaviors like virulence…
Research Interest: Quorum Sensing (QS) links collective group behaviors directly to cell density through the production and secretion of soluble autoinducers (AI). Detailed studies of multiple QS systems have demonstrated the broad chemical diversity of bacterial AIs, including acyl-homo-serine-lactones (e.g. 3OC12-HSL in…
Research interest: Quorum sensing (QS) is a cell-to-cell communication system in which bacteria synthesize, release, and detect extracellular signals called autoinducers. Autoinducers (AI) accumulate in proportion to cell density. This allows bacteria to monitor changes in their cell numbers and collectively alter gene expression…
