Meet The Microbiologist - The Scientists Behind The Microbiology

Roberto Kolter is a professor of Microbiology andMolecular Genetics at Harvard’s Medical School.  Dr. Kolter’s research interests are broad, but he says his eclectic program boils down to an interest in the ecology and evolution of microbes, bacteria in particular, and on how these forces operate at the molecular level. Although he’s worked in a number of different systems, lately Dr. Kolter is spending a lot of time with Bacillus subtilis, a modest little bacterium that doesn’t get the headlines of a wicked pathogen like Salmonella or a useful industrial workhorse like yeast.  What it lacks in notoriety,  B. subtilis makes up for in usefulness.  According to Dr. Kolter, B. subtilis is an important source of industrial enzymes (as in laundry detergent) and, as a bacterial model, a prolific source of information on how some bacteria make spores and other diverse cell types.  This ability to form different kinds of cells is intriguing to Dr. Kolter: B. subtilis cells can wear any of a number of d