Seminar by Enrique Rojas

3,000 Years Among the Microbes: Bacteria-Bacteriophage Ecology at the Cellular Scale

Enrique Rojas, Assistant Professor
Department of Biology, New York University

I will first briefly describe my current research concerning the mechanisms by which bacteria sense and control their growth rate using a negative feedback system that incorporates mechanical, electrical and biochemical signals.  I will then describe my field research in Bangladesh, which is where I became interested in the evolution and ecology of bacteria-bacteriophage interactions in the context of cholera epidemiology.  Because of this field experience, I have recently begun studying physiological mechanisms by which bacteria cope with bacteriophage infections.  I will describe preliminary data concerning the dynamics of bacteria-bacteriophage interactions and explain how phenotypic resistance of the bacterium to phage infection is surprisingly common.  I will propose potential mechanisms for this resistance as topic for potential collaboration.