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Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - You have discovered how bacteria communicate.
This year two American microbiologists will receive the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize endowed with 120,000 euros.
The work of Bonnie L. Bassler and Michael R. Silverman could help avoid antibiotics, as the Paul Ehrlich Foundation reported on Wednesday in Frankfurt am Main.
Because of the corona pandemic, the award ceremony will not take place until March 14, 2022 - together with the award ceremony for next year's winners.
Bassler (53) teaches at Princeton University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (New Jersey), Silverman (77) worked at the Agouron Institute in La Jolla (California) before his retirement.
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The two have shown that «collective behavior is not only the rule among multicellular organisms, but also among bacteria», as the jury stated in the statement of reasons.
Communication between bacteria is “an Achilles heel”, which provides new approaches to combating microbes: “Instead of killing bacteria with antibiotics, substances can now be developed that prevent bacterial communication.
The research carried out by the award winners is therefore of considerable relevance for medicine. "
Silverman and Bassler discovered that bacteria send and receive signals.
The microorganisms want to know whether they are on site alone or with many other species.
The term quorum sensing was coined for this communication.
To measure the number of bacteria, they analyze certain language molecules.
If the concentration exceeds a certain threshold, group-specific behavior sets in.
Silverman first discovered the phenomenon in the 1980s in dwarf squid, which glow blue-green at night - thanks to a bacterium.
Bassler discovered in the early 1990s that there were other language molecules.
They inform the bacteria whether other species are also present and who is in the majority.
According to the Board of Trustees, bacteria are not only extremely communicative, they even speak several languages.
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The importance of these findings was "only recently recognized in its full scope," said the chairman of the foundation board, Prof. Thomas Boehm (Freiburg).
It is now known that all bacteria communicate in this way.
"This has not only led to a fundamental change in perspective in bacteriology, but also to completely new approaches in antibiotic research."
The young talent award, endowed with 60,000 euros, goes to developmental biologist Elvira Mass from Bonn.
The 34-year-old is a professor at the Life and Medical Sciences Institute at the University of Bonn.
She was concerned with the question of how organs develop and what keeps them healthy.
The course for this is already set in the early embryo, as the award winner demonstrated “in a series of elegant experiments”, according to the jury.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210127-99-188119 / 2