How light suppresses virulence in an antibiotic-resistant pathogen
Originally written by Matt Wood, University of Chicago , on January 20, 2026 and published in phys.org edited by Stephanie Baum , reviewed by Robert Egan Light is a universal stimulus that influences all living things. Cycles of light and dark help set the biological clocks for organisms ranging from single-celled bacteria to human beings. Some bacteria use photosynthesis to convert sunlight into energy just like plants, but other bacteria sense light for less well-known functions. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an antibiotic-resistant bacterium that is known to cause difficult to treat infections in hospitalized patients. Credit: Centers for Disease Control In 2019, Sampriti Mukherjee, Ph.D., and her team at the University of Chicago discovered that far-red light, part of the light spectrum near the infrared range, prevents the formation of biofilms by the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa . Biofilms form when communities of bacteria cluster together and att...