Argonne Lab researchers explore how bacteria collect, store and use information

In Illinois, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Chicago are finding new computational ways to describe bacterial cognition, a concept that emerged in the 1940s. These methods enable scientists to quantitatively measure how bacteria collect information, store that information and use it to interact with their environments.

The work provides new insights that will be required to engineer exotic strains of bacteria for bio-manufacturing. The U.S. bio-economy is valued at an estimated $250 billion annually. The Argonne scientists intend to translate their findings into a comprehensive information model that can be used to computationally predict what combination of nutrients could optimally induce a metabolic pathway of industrial interest.