Bonnie Bassler

Princeton University

Bonnie Bassler is the world's leading authority on quorum sensing — the chemical communication system that bacteria use to count their population and coordinate collective behaviors including biofilm formation and virulence. Her discovery that quorum sensing uses a universal inter-species signal molecule, autoinducer-2, opened new frameworks for microbial ecology and infection biology. Bassler's lab has translated these insights into anti-quorum-sensing compounds that disarm pathogens without killing them. She received a MacArthur Fellowship and was President of the American Society for Microbiology.