Dr. Bonnie Bassler
Feb. 2, 2016
by Stephanie Weaver
Loyola University Maryland’s programs in natural and applied sciences present the 2016 Grand Seminar featuring a lecture by Bonnie Bassler, Ph.D., Squibb Professor in Molecular Biology and chair of the department of molecular biology at Princeton University, on April 13, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. in McGuire Hall.
In her research Bassler discovered that bacteria communicate with a chemical language. This process, known as “quorum sensing,” allows bacteria to count their numbers, determine when they have reached a critical mass, and then change their behavior in unison to carry out processes that require many cells acting together to be effective.
Her TED talk, “Tiny Conspiracies: Cell-to-Cell Communication in Bacteria” has nearly 2,000,000 views.
Bassler is a MacArthur Fellowship recipient and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. She was the 2004 Inventor of the Year by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association for her idea that interfering with AI-2 language could form the basis of a new type of broad-spectrum antibiotic. Recently, Bassler was awarded the prestigious Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine.
Bassler received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis. She earned her doctorate in biochemistry from The Johns Hopkins University.
This year’s Grand Seminar will feature “Celebration of Science Week” from April 11 – 15 on the Evergreen campus. For full list of the week’s activities, go to http://www.loyola.edu/academic/sciences/events/grand-seminar-week.
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