A collaboration between mathematicians and biologists at UCI’s Department of Developmental and Cell Biology and School of Medicine has shed light on how the bacterium Chlamydia regulates its unusual growth cycle. By combining experimental data with statistical models, the team showed that the size of bacterial cells acts as an internal timer, triggering the switch to an infectious state. This discovery helps explain how Chlamydia balances growth and infection, and may point toward new treatment strategies.
The study, entitled “Statistical analysis supports the size control mechanism of Chlamydia development”, was published in the July 2025 issue of PLoS Computational Biology, and involved the Enciso, Sütterlin and Tan groups.