Helen Blackwell, 33 "Talking" bacteria out of causing infections
University of Wisconsin The main cause of death among cystic-
fibrosis patients, and a threat to many burn victims and AIDS
patients as well, is the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. But
the microbe is not a health problem until enough of the bacteria
join together to form a gooey amalgamation called a "biofilm."
Almost 80 percent of bacterial infections are in biofilm form.
Helen Blackwell, an assistant professor of chemistry, studies
quorum sensing -- the communications mechanism that tells
bacteria that they have replicated enough to form a biofilm. Its
easy, according to Blackwell, to synthesize the organic
molecules that bacteria use to talk to each other. Blackwell is
testing a series of such messenger molecules to see if she can
hijack the bacterias communications network. So far, of the
hundreds of molecules she has screened, 10 seem promising. The
right molecule might fight a hard-to-treat infection or induce a
small, early infection to