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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