Ming Hammond
University of Utah, UT·Chemistry
Bacteria constantly sense chemicals around them and use internal signaling molecules to decide how to behave: whether to swim or settle, whether to build protective biofilm communities, and whether to release toxins. These signals are hard to study because they appear briefly, are present in tiny amounts, and carry strong electrical charges.
- Fields
Chemistry
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
- Topics
cyclic di-GMP
c-di-GMP
bacterial signaling
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Develop a high-throughput assay that monitors in real time how small molecules cross into bacterial cells by passive permeation, active uptake or efflux pumping, and use it to test which structures and genes affect accumulation of dyes and clinical antibiotics.
- Build next-generation fluorescent biosensors for cyclic di-GMP, a bacterial signal controlling biofilm formation and toxin release, to enable quantitative, high-throughput screening of signaling enzyme activity directly inside cells.
- Identify the nutrients, chemicals and environmental inputs recognized by a widespread small-molecule-binding domain tied to cyclic di-GMP signaling enzymes, combining structure-based bioinformatics with biosensor screening.
- Create a new type of biosensor to image cyclic di-GMP in place within bacterial biofilms, revealing how environmental conditions shape signal levels across the community.
More about the research
A second, related puzzle is how small molecules, including antibiotics, get into and out of bacterial cells. The research builds light-up biosensors that make these hidden chemical events visible and measurable in living bacteria.
Why it matters
Bacterial signaling helps pathogens sense and adapt to their host, including the bacteria behind cholera, typhoid fever, urinary tract infections and food poisoning. Tools that track these signals could help reveal how dietary nutrients affect gut bacteria, which the project hopes may eventually inform personalized diets for inflammatory bowel diseases. Measuring how antibiotics accumulate inside bacteria could also clarify mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and improve treatments and dye-based research tools.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Christopher Waters
Michigan State University, MI·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how DcdV, a two-domain deoxycytidine deaminase from Vibrio cholerae, works at the cellular and atomic levels, using genetics, biochemistry, microscopy, and structural biology.
Andrew Bridges
Carnegie Mellon University, PA·Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemically characterize the lysis-sensing receptor and its signal in Vibrio cholerae to learn how detecting the death of related cells triggers formation of protective biofilms.
Rasika Harshey
University of Texas at Austin, TX·Microbiology & Immunology
Use phage Mu transposition, which inserts DNA almost anywhere, to build a high-resolution map of contacts between genomic loci in E. coli and test how genome organization influences gene expression.
The school
University of Utah: 58 labs on PI Pages, $789M a year on research, 366 research doctorates a year.
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