Bonnie L. Bassler

About

Bonnie L. Bassler is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Andrew K. Golden University Professor, and the Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use for intercellular communication, specifically through a process called quorum sensing. This process allows bacteria to communicate using secreted chemical signaling molecules called autoinducers, enabling a population of bacteria to regulate gene expression collectively and coordinate behaviors such as bioluminescence, secretion of virulence factors, sporulation, and conjugation. Bassler's work has shown that bacteria like Vibrio harveyi and Vibrio cholerae produce different autoinducers, which are detected by sensor proteins that transduce information via phosphorylation/dephosphorylation cascades, with small RNA chaperone proteins acting as regulatory switches in these cascades. Her research has elucidated the biosynthetic pathways and structural details of AI-2 signaling molecules, revealing their widespread presence and role in inter-species bacterial communication. Her scientific contributions are paving the way for developing novel antimicrobial therapies aimed at disrupting quorum sensing to combat bacterial virulence. Bassler has received numerous awards and honors, including the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the National…

Research topics

• Biology
• Materials science
• Genetics
• Biophysics
• Physics
• Psychology
• Quantum mechanics
• Cell biology
• Chemistry
• Nanotechnology

Selected publications

• Cell position fates and collective fountain flow in bacterial biofilms revealed by light-sheet microscopy

  Science · 2020 · 159 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  It is unknown how spatial trajectories of individual cells and the collective motions of many cells drive biofilm expansion. We developed dual-view light-sheet microscopy to investigate the dynamics of biofilm development from a founder cell to a mature three-dimensional community. Tracking of individual cells revealed two distinct fates: one set of biofilm cells expanded ballistically outward, while the other became trapped at the substrate. A collective fountain-like flow transported cells to…

  DOI

• Nonuniform growth and surface friction determine bacterial biofilm morphology on soft substrates

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 150 citations

  biofilms grown on agar substrates in which the spatiotemporal morphological patterns were altered by varying the agar concentration. Expanding biofilms are initially flat but later undergo a mechanical instability and become wrinkled. To gain mechanistic insights into this dynamic pattern-formation process, we developed a model that considers diffusion of nutrients and their uptake by bacteria, bacterial growth/biofilm matrix production, mechanical deformation of both the biofilm and the substra…

  DOI

• Roadmap on emerging concepts in the physical biology of bacterial biofilms: from surface sensing to community formation

  Physical Biology · 2021 · 95 citations

  Bacterial biofilms are communities of bacteria that exist as aggregates that can adhere to surfaces or be free-standing. This complex, social mode of cellular organization is fundamental to the physiology of microbes and often exhibits surprising behavior. Bacterial biofilms are more than the sum of their parts: single-cell behavior has a complex relation to collective community behavior, in a manner perhaps cognate to the complex relation between atomic physics and condensed matter physics. Bio…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Small protein modules dictate prophage fates during polylysogeny

  Nature · 2023-07-26 · 49 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  . Thus, how co-residing prophages compete for cell resources if they respond to an identical trigger is unknown. Here we discover regulatory modules that control prophage induction independently of the DNA-damage cue. The modules bear little resemblance at the sequence level but share a regulatory logic by having a transcription factor that activates the expression of a neighbouring gene that encodes a small protein. The small protein inactivates the master repressor of lysis, which leads to ind…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Induction mechanisms and strategies underlying interprophage competition during polylysogeny

  PLoS Pathogens · 2023-05-18 · 40 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Phages play central roles in shaping bacterial community biology. For example, lytic phages, by eliminating particular subpopulations of bacteria, control the composition of bacterial biofilm communities Temperate phages can infect and persist in bacteria, a state called lysogeny As inhabitants, lysogenic phages drive bacterial genome evolution via the introduction of viral genes that endow the hosts with new capabilities or that regulate host biochemical or signaling pathways. For instance, som…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Intra- and Inter- Species Communication in Bacteria

  NIH · $3.4M · 2020–2025

• Intercellular Signaling in Vibrio Harveyi

  NSF · $450k · 2004–2008

• NIH Grant R01GM065859

  NIH · $4.2M · 2016

Frequent coauthors

• Ned S. Wingreen

  Princeton University

  91 shared

• Howard A. Stone

  54 shared

• Justin E. Silpe

  52 shared

• Andrew A. Bridges

  Institute for Wildlife Studies

  51 shared

• M. Silverman

  40 shared

• Chenyi Fei

  40 shared

• Carey D. Nadell

  Dartmouth College

  39 shared

• Wai‐Leung Ng

  Tufts University

  37 shared

Education

• Ph.D.

  Johns Hopkins University

  1990

• B.S.

  University of California Davis

  1984

Awards & honors

• National Medal of Science (2024)
• Gairdner International Award (2023)
• Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Rese…
• Microbiology Society Prize Medal (2022)
• Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2022)

Similar researchers at Princeton University

• Arnold J. Levineh-191
• Thomas E. Shenkh-136
• Michael Levineh-131