A A C M D  B Q S N. Krasnogor ∗ M. Gheorghe † G. Terrazas ‡ S. Diggle § P. Williams ¶ M. Camara ‖ Abstract “Quorum Sensing” has been identified as one of the most consequential microbiology discoveries of the last 10 years. Using Quorum Sensing bac- terial colonies synchronize gene expression and phenotype change allowing them, among other things, to protect their niche, coordinate host invasion and bio-film formation. In this contribution we briefly describe the elemen- tary microbiology background and comment on some of the approaches that have been used to model this important phenomenon. We also informally show that Quorum Sensing is computational complete and suggest some applications where this computational method could impact other areas of computer science. 1 Introduction Recent advances in analytical biotechnology, computational biology, bioinformat- ics and computational modeling promise ever deeper understanding of the com- plexity of biological systems, particularly the computations they perform in order to survive in dynamic and hostile environments. These insights will ultimately en- able researchers to harness the living cell as a computational device with its own ∗ ASAP Group, School of Computer Science and IT,University of Nottingham, Na- talio.Krasnogor@Nottingham.ac.uk † Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, M.Gheorghe@dcs.shef.ac.uk ‡ ASAP Group, School of Computer Science and IT,University of Nottingham, gzt@cs.nott.ac.uk § Molecular Medical Sciences, Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflamation, University of Nottingham, Steve.Diggle@Nottingham.ac.uk ¶ Molecular Medical Sciences, Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflamation„ University of Nottingham, Paul.Williams@Nottingham.ac.uk ‖ Molecular Medical Sciences, Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflamation, University of Nottingham, Miguel.Camara@Nottingham.ac.uk