Friday Seminar with Dr. Michael Federle

In Fridays seminar Dr. Michael Federle from the University of Illinois at Chicago gave a presentation on his research into cell to cell communication among bacteria.  Dr. Federle is a microbiologist in the medicinal chemistry department, and he hopes his research can result in a new way to fight bacterial infections by blocking the communication between bacteria cells rendering them harmless; as opposed to killing them.  His argument is that it is becoming more and more difficult to stay ahead of the bacteria when producing new antibiotics, so he is proposing this new approach.
Dr. Federle's research looks at Quorum sensing which is the mechanism by which bacteria signal each other. The bacteria release pheromones (called Rggs in his research) that when encountered start gene expression.  This results in toxins, exoenzymes and other chemicals that damage tissue and otherwise make us sick.  The bacteria use these signals to coordinate when there are enough of them around.  If they can find a way to identify the functions of these and a way to interfere with them then it would make the bacteria relatively harmless and provide a new way to fight infections.  In his lab they are working with bacteria that produce bioluminescence and have been able to turn this gene expression on and off as an example of Quorum sensing and how to manipulate it.
Much of this seminar involved a good deal of genetics, microbiology and very little chemistry so there was not much to report on reactions or chemistry we have covered in this class.  Eventually a molecule will have to be synthesized for a mechanism to interfere with the communication between cells when everything has been identified.  The hope is that this will be a way to keep the bacteria from organizing and turning on gene expressions for chemicals harmful to us.  There seems to be a lot of research to do with identifying the pheromones, their interactions, targets, and molecules that can inhibit the signals.  Dr. Federle is also working with Dr. Cech here at UNCG on these points.  The presentation was very interesting and showed how important organic chemistry is in multiple disciplines to gain important knowledge and solve real world problems.
Here is a link to Dr. Federle's research site:
http://www.uic.edu/labs/federle/