Quorum sensing
Artificial materials based on simple synthetic polymers can disrupt the way in which bacteria communicate with each other, a study, funded by the BBSRC, and led by scientists at The University of Nottingham has shown.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Chemistry, could further our knowledge on how better to control and exploit bacteria in the future and will have implications for work in the emerging field of synthetic biology.
Professor Cameron Alexander, in the University’s School of Pharmacy, led the study. He said: “This is an exciting and unexpected finding for us and comes as a result of research which was very much curiosity driven."
“It gives us more information about how to design artificial cells and to produce materials that will interact with microorganisms and control their behaviour, with a whole host of potential applications including drug discovery and energy production.”
Influencing microbial behaviour
The study, which also involved scientists from the universities of Birmingham and Newcastle, was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and The University of Nottingham.
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Posted on Tuesday 12th November 2013