Today, Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Julia van Kessel of Indiana University will chat with us about how groups of bacteria can sense one another and carry out behavior as a collective…including some kinds of disease!
Host: Mark O. Martin
Guest: Julia van Kessel
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Links for this episode
- An introduction to the horrific disease leprosy, caused by the quite strange organism Mycobacterium leprae.
- An overview of the Hansen Institute in Ethiopia.
- A solid overview of quorum sensing.
- A very interesting review article about quorum sensing.
- A video that two of my Bio350 Micronauts (including a former guest of our podcast, Dr. Ruth Isenberg) put together some years ago to illustrate the idea of quorum sensing.
- A very clear overview of quorum sensing by the highly energetic and brilliant Dr. Bonnie Bassler, one of the giants of this field.
- A #LuxArt show I organized a few years ago at Carleton College, where I encouraged students to create art by “painting” with luminous bacteria on Petri dishes. It is a true merger of art and science.
- Using Chromobacterium to “look” for quorum sensing molecules. I made this imperfect video to illustrate the concept.
- My old friend Vibrio harveyi, which Dr. van Kessel uses in her laboratory.
- Vibrio coralliilyticus, which causes coral diseases.
- If you are interested in learning about how some bacteria have what seems to be a molecular switchblade knife—the Type 6 Secretory System— to use against other bacteria or other organisms, the link above is a fine place to start. In addition, a Bio350 student of mine made a lovely Claymation video of the process some years ago.
- Here is Dr. van Kessel’s faculty website at Indiana University in Bloomington.
- Here is the laboratory website—with excellent graphics and videos—of Dr. van Kessel’s group.
Intro music is by Reber Clark
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