My main research interest is cell-to-cell interactions in bacteria and the role of these interactions in assembly, maintenance and recovery of bacterial consortia. In particular, our work focuses on cell-to-cell interactions mediated by quorum sensing signal molecules that foster interspecies interactions. We want to understand the role of these signaling processes in regulating bacterial group behaviors in polyspecies communities and the consequences of these processes in the beneficial and hostile interactions that these communities establish with their hosts. In the past, we demonstrated that bacteria can use quorum sensing signals to foster interspecies quorum sensing and we have discovered mechanisms that exists in some bacteria which enables them to interfere with quorum sensing signaling of other species. Our recent work enhances our understanding of how bacterial chemical interactions shape polyspecies bacterial communities and highlights the importance of interspecies interactions in modulating metabolic networks in bacterial communities such as the gut microbiota. Our findings reveal novel approaches that take advantage of these interactions to ameliorate host physiology.