Communication on a microbial scale

Microorganisms suffer from negative public relations, often being associated with dirt, spoiled food, and diseases. In fact, microorganisms are vital for us human beings. Many of them thrive in our guts, facilitating our digestion. Most waste products in nature can exclusively be degraded by microorganisms. And even in the development and production of new drugs we profit considerably from microbes – they are, for example, prolific producers of important antibiotics. To better understand and more efficiently utilize microbial processes, it is essential to investigate their communication – i.e., the significance of the multitudinous signals they exchange with their environment. The PhD students at the Jena School for Microbial Communication (JSMC) aim to decipher these signals. With this, they pursue various different scientific goals such as the development of new pharmaceutical agents and new analytic technologies, prevention and control of infectious diseases, or the remediation of contaminated soil.