Bacteria can utilize chemical signals to coordinate the expression of group-beneficial behaviors in a mode of cell-cell communication called quorum sensing (QS). Once a quorate population of bacteria is achieved in a given environment, bacteria will work together as a group to initiate behaviors that are impossible as individual cells.
The behavior of molecules in the excited states can be dramatically different from the ground state, which can lead to a whole host of new reactivity. We seek to design molecules that can be controlled to exhibit different responses (i.e. bond cleaving reactions, emission of different colors of light) depending on the environment and conditions set by the user. These designs have applications in biomaterials and medical diagnostics. We are also developing methods to insert thioamide isosteres into previously uncharted peptide sequence space.