Suel Lab uses quantitative biology approaches to uncover fundamental principles of cellular behavior. Specifically, it integrates quantitative imaging, data analysis and mathematical modeling across molecular, single cell and population scales to elucidate the relationship among the pattern of interactions, stochastic fluctuations (noise) and complex dynamics of genetic circuits that govern among others cell fate choice. The lab’s goal is to understand the evolutionary selection pressures that may have selected for beneficial cellular and population level strategies.

Bonnie L. Bassler, E. Peter Greenberg, and Michael R. Silverman are awarded the 2023 Canada Gairdner International Award for their discoveries of how bacteria communicate with each other and surrounding non-bacterial cells, providing a new paradigm for how microbes behave and yielding novel avenues for therapeutics against infectious diseases.

Quorum sensing is the means by which bacteria communicate and decide what behaviors to express. In this talk, molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler discusses the use of inhibitors that disrupt this to create a new type of antibiotic. Could this change the way humans treat bacteria?

Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria “talk” to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry–and our understanding of ourselves.