Let's Talk Micro

Season 4 is here! Tune in for the first episode. Luis talks to Dr. Paul Hergenrother about lolamicin. Dr. Hergenrother is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois in Urnaba-Champaign. He was previously a guest in the podcast (fabimycin episode) and this time he returns to talk about another potential antibiotic candidate: lolamicin. What is lolamicin? What is the mechanism of action? What organisms does it have activity against? Does it affect the gut microbiota?

Link to Dr. Hergenrother's article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07502-0

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Originally published in May 26, 2022, in this episode Luis continues going over beta hemolytic strep: this time Streptococcus anginosus group. What are the species that comprise this group? What is the Lancefield group? What about biochemicals and morphology? Have you heard of Streptococcus pseudoporcinus? Tune in to find out.

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Originally published in November 30 2023, in this episode, Dr. Pei Zhou from the Duke University School of Medicine joins the podcast and talks to Luis about LPC-233. This is a compound that shows bactericidal activity against some gram-negative rods. LPC-233 is an LpxC inhibitor. What is LpxC? How does LPC-233 works? What are some challenges of developing LpxC inhibitors? Tune in to find out.

Link to article: https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.adf5668

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Originally published on October 13, 2022, this episode features Luis in conversation with Dr. Paul Hergenrother from the University of Illinois. Dr. Hergenrother discusses Fabimycin, an antibiotic candidate targeting gram-negative bacteria. What is Fabimycin's mechanism of action? Which bacteria is it active against? Is there any intrinsic resistance? Tune in to find out!

Link to article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscentsci.2c00598

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A great way to end season 3! In this episode Dr. Cullen Lilley talks to Luis about his textbook : A Concise Review of Clinical Microbiology . Dr. Lilley is a pathology resident, with a Microbiology background, and a Let's Talk Micro listener! Tune in to learn about what is in this microbiology textbook, what is Ace my Path, what are the roles of a pathologist and more.

Link to Ace My Path: https://www.acemypath.com

Link to textbook: https://a.co/d/gGDiZ8Z

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In the laboratory we routinely use molecular testing to identify organisms in blood cultures. We also incubate body fluids in blood culture bottles. What if we could use those same tests to identify organisms from body fluids? In this episode Christina Cox and Joel Mortensen join the podcast to talk about this. They performed a study where they used the cobas® eplex system (GenMark) to identify organisms recovered from sterile body fluid cultures. Tune in to hear about the results and the applications of this in the clinical laboratory.

Link to article: https://doi.org/10.1128/jcm.01611-23

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In this episode of Let's Talk Micro, we're revisiting the topic of respiratory cultures — a cornerstone in clinical microbiology. We'll go over the different types of respiratory specimens, common pathogens recovered, and how to handle yeast when it shows up in cultures. We'll also cover rejection criteria — when a sample should not be processed — and the pitfalls that can affect interpretation.

Tune in for a practical walkthrough of respiratory culture workups, from specimen processing to recognizing clinically significant organisms and their impact on patient care.

This episode was originally released in 2022.

Article on sputum rejection, as discussed by Dr. Prinzi in this episode:

https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/jcm.16.4.627-631.1982

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In this episode Luis is joined by Dr. Crystal Icenhour to talk about the microbiome, more specifically, the human microbiome. What organisms typically make up the microbiome? Do they change between areas of the body? What are some applications for the microbiome? Tune in for another great episode.

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ASM Microbe 2024 took place in Atlanta Georgia from June 13-17. Check out this bonus episode where Luis discusses his two events, favorite posters, and more.

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Research in MLS? In this episode Grace Leu-Burke, director of the Medical Laboratory Sciences (MLS) program at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, returns to the podcast. She talks to Luis about the research program the MLS students are involved in. They culture scat from moose, bears, and geese, perform identification and susceptibility testing, and more. What kind of antimicrobial resistance is found in this sample population? Tune in to learn more about this research.

Link to JAM meeting registration: https://www.labjam.org/event/cc75ef76-49db-4175-8440-d194382bcf05/websitePage:d132f4da-b01b-4c7c-9ea8-5866e2b0f8ca

Title of Grace's Talk: "Emerging Antimicrobial Resistance, A One Health Model"

Thursday July 11th at 9:30am

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