Bonnie Lynn Bassler

Dr. Bonnie Lynn Bassler is the Squibb Professor and Chair of the Molecular Biology Department at Princeton University. She holds a joint appointment as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Dr. Bassler is known for her discovery of intra- and inter-species communication in bacteria, a process known as quorum sensing. Quorum sensing involves the production, release, and detection of chemical signal molecules called autoinducers (AIs) in a population of bacteria, enabling all the bacteria present in the community to synchronously regulate gene expression, and therefore, behavior. Thus, quorum sensing allows bacteria to act as collectives and to successfully undertake tasks that would be unproductive if carried out by a single bacterium acting alone. Importantly in this realm, Bassler has shown that quorum-sensing-mediated communication is required for virulence and biofilm formation in globally important bacterial pathogens.

Bassler demonstrated that bacteria make and use different AIs for intra-species communication (HAI-1), for intra-genus communication (CAI-1), and for universal, inter-species bacterial cell-cell communication (AI-2). Her lab has furthermore untangled the signal transduction pathways that mediate detection of and responses to AIs, showing that transmission of the chemical information into the cells relies on a set of redundant small RNAs (sRNAs) that Bassler named the Qrr sRNAs. Bassler further elucidated the structures of several AIs including the universal signal Al-2 bound to its receptor, LuxP, revealing the surprise that Al-2 contains a boron atom. This finding was one of the first examples of a biological role for boron, an element with a long history in chemistry but virtually none in biology. Bassler's group is now actively developing strategies to interfere with quorum sensing as the bases for new antibiotics. She has proved the validity of this approach by terminating bacterial infections in model animals using her synthetic anti-quorum-sensing compounds. Dr. Bassler's research has shown that understanding communication in bacteria has enormous implications for biomedical science and for understanding cell-cell communication and collective behaviors in all organisms.

The Bassler lab's current research areas include: (1) investigation of intra- and inter-species communication, population-level cooperation, and mechanisms of signal transduction in bacteria; (2) development of strategies to disrupt quorum sensing in pathogenic bacteria such as the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of the endemic diarrheal disease cholera, and Pseudomonas aerunginosa, a pathogen devastating in cystic fibrosis patients; and (3) development of pro-quorum-sensing strategies to improve products of medical, industrial, and agricultural importance. Bassler draws on interdisciplinary techniques to accomplish this research, integrating genetics, biochemistry, structural biology, chemistry, microarray studies, bioinformatics, modeling, physics, and engineering approaches. 

Dr. Bassler received her BS from the University of California, Davis, her PhD from the Johns Hopkins University, and she conducted post-doctoral research at the Agouron Institute. She has received numerous awards highlighting the broad importance of her research including, among others: a 2002 MacArthur Fellowship, 2003 Thomas Edison Patent Award, 2008 World Cultural Council Award for Scientific Merit, 2009 Wiley Prize, 2011 NAS Richard Lounsbery Award, 2012 L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award, 2015 Ricketts Award, 2015 Shaw Prize in Medicine, 2016 FASEB Excell