In my Microbiology class, we talk about bacteria, germs and viruses on a regular basis. As some would probably think, this is just one those Science classes that is boring and you just want to get through it, get a C and then move on. Well, that was my attitude about it when I took this class the first time around when I was young and unsure about my life. I now have a renewed interest in Science, Microbiology included now that I'm older. Also, if I want to become a Nurse, this will be something I have to love for the rest of my life. I have never been so sure that this is right for me.
I have always known that we live in a world dependent on Science. But I now just discovered that as much as it is hard to fathom that bacteria are running our lives, they are. They are significant in keeping us alive and well (or unwell sometimes) and we benefit from them and we don't even give them credit for it. Also, not all germs are bad for us contrary to what we were told growing up (I'm sure most of us were told by our parents that they are all bad.) Boy are they wrong! I'm sure my Microbiology teacher will definitely "school" them about it.
Last Friday, we were offered to attend a lecture regarding bacterial communication for our Microbiology class. I was told that that my teacher rarely gives this kind of opportunity, for extra credit, so why not take it? The leture was held at Fermilab in Batavia and the speaker was Dr. Bonnie Bassler, a professor at Princeton University also a molecular biologist. She does research on new treatments for several diseases including Multiple Sclerosis. She has a team of young people who research bacterial behavior to find out if we can use their natural, unique ways to our population's advantage and find cures to some diseases that have been plaguing us for years now. She stated that if we are able to tap into how bacteria behave and alter that behavior we will be able to find cures. In that lecture I learned that for billions of years, bacterial cells communicate by way of chemical signals since they don't have eyes, ears and mouths like humans do. They have this process called "quorum sensing" that enables a population of bacteria to collectively regulate gene expression and behavior. In other words, one or two bacteria are unproductive as opposed to many of them. They won't act unless they get signals that there are a lot of them, therefore they can do what it is they are supposed to do. So for Science students who have taken Biology, we all know that bacteria are one-celled organism, but Quorum Sensing allows them to act like they are multicellular. For example if bacteria use Quorum sensing for virulence factor, by making them miscommunicate might make them less virulent. I can enumerate a lot of what I learned but that's for another time.
What an exciting lecture that was. It was one of the most engaging lectures I had ever attended. She spoke for about thirty minutes and I wanted her to go on and on. What I learned is that instead of loathing the presence of bacteria, we should learn to appreciate them. Instead of trying to avoid them at all cost, we should sometimes embrace them. Ha! Tell that to my mom!
Here she is in one of her lectures over that same topic of bacterial communication: http://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate.html