What We Study

In the Blackwell Lab, we study quorum sensing. Quorum sensing is a way that bacteria communicate with each other through chemical signals (also known as autoinducers), which tell the bacteria when they have a sufficient population to carry out a specific task. As the bacteria continue to multiply and form colonies, the concentration of chemical signals eventually increases past the threshold level, allowing autoinducers to interact with receptors in the bacteria, turning on certain gene expression. Quorum sensing, therefore, is way that bacteria can cooperate to complete tasks that would not be possible if each bacteria expressed certain genes independently.

Many types of bacteria use quorum sensing to turn on virulence factors, which enable them to cause infections in humans. For this reason, quorum sensing is extremely relevant in our society today as inhibiting it could prevent infection caused by bacteria, especially those from bacteria which are already resistant to numerous antibiotics.