KANSAS: Researcher featured in NIH video series
Josephine (Josie) Chandler, PhD, first became interested in science when she took a high school chemistry class. In college, she fell in love with microbiology and ultimately earned a Ph.D. in the field. Today, she’s an associate professor of molecular biosciences at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where her lab investigates interactions in bacterial communities. NIGMS recently featured Dr. Chandler in their video series, Career Conversations.
Dr. Chandler's research is focused on understanding how bacteria communicate and cooperate with each other to carry out complex group behaviors. She primarily studies a cell-cell communication system in bacteria called quorum sensing. Using Burkholderia thailandensis as a model, Dr. Chandler developed laboratory systems to understand how quorum sensing and cooperation are important for 1) competition between bacteria using antibiotics and 2) formation of self-structured communities.