There is remarkable biodiversity in all but the most extreme ecosystems on Earth. When many species are competing for the same finite resource, a theory called competitive exclusion suggests one species will outperform the others and drive them to extinction, limiting biodiversity. But this isn’t what we observe in nature. Theoretical models of population dynamics have not presented a fully satisfactory explanation for what has come to be known as the diversity paradox.

There is still much to understand about the dynamics of bacterial communities in the human gut, as well as how bacteria behave en masse in a biofilm, a collective of microorganisms that can grow on many different surfaces (e.g. dental plaque).

A new study, published in mBio, exposes a zinc-import system in bacteria that could contribute to their ability to cause infection.

The study looked at how the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, which can infect virtually all of the tissues in the human body, competes with the immune system for the essential nutrient zinc.

An expert in using computational and experimental techniques to combat infectious diseases, Illinois Bioengineering faculty and MMG member Paul Jensen is taking aim at one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the U.S.—tooth decay.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have discovered a mechanism that allows bacteria of the same species to communicate when their survival is threatened. The study suggests that it may be possible to slow dangerous infections by manipulating the messages these microbes send to each other, allowing the body to defeat an infection without causing the bacteria to develop resistance to the treatment.