99311 news 1247616000 1653584976 Brian Hammer, assistant professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Tech received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study a cell-to-cell communication system that allows bacteria to "talk" to each other. Bacteria use this process, called quorum sensing, to synchronize their behavior and act like multicellular organisms. The Hammer lab is studying the role of quorum sensing in the environmental lifestyle of the aquatic microbe, Vibrio cholerae, which causes the fatal disease cholera. The grant also includes resources for a K-12 outreach program with undergraduate participation that was developed by Dr. Hammer to introduce concepts about bacteria and marine ecology to local elementary school students and teachers.

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