Let's Talk Micro

The show "The last of us" has brought the topic of fungal infections to the spotlight. What is Cordyceps? Why is the the term zombie used? What is the relationship between fungi and body temperature? Dr. Andrej Spec, an Infectious Diseases physician, joins the podcast to talk about Cordyceps and fungi.

This week's episode is about one species of Bacillus that causes disease and has the potential of being used as a bioterror agent : Bacillus anthracis. What is anthrax? How is this organism identified in the lab? What about Bacillus cereus biovar anthracis? Tune in to this episode to find out the answers.

In this episode I continue going over Bacillus. Now that we know its groups and what diseases they are implicated on, it's time to talk about media and morphology. What do the colonies look like? What is MYP agar? PEMBA? Tune in to find out.

This week's episode is about Bacillus and related genera. What are the groups that are part of this genus? Which species cause food poisoning? What about endophthalmitis? What are spores? Tune in to find out.

Questions? Feedback? Send those to [email protected]

Want to support the podcast? Here's how:

Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/letstalkmicro

Buy me a Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/letstalkmicro

In a previous episode we talked about microbes in food. What about appliances such as a washing machine or a dishwasher? Or cleaning tools such as a sponge? Dr. Madeline Barron joins the podcast to answer those questions. She is the author of an article titled "Microbial Inhabitants of Cleaning Appliances and Tools". Tune in to find out what microbes are in those tools and appliances, recommendations for reducing their number, and more.

Link to article: https://asm.org/Articles/2022/November/Microbial-Inhabitants-Cleaning-Appliances

Questions? Feedback? Send those to [email protected]

Want to support the podcast? Here's how:

Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/letstalkmicro

Buy me a Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/letstalkmicro

This episode features an interview with Dr. Jose Alexander and Dustin Evans from AdvenHealth. They join the podcast to talk about a PCR test that they developed to detect amoeba. Not only it detects Naegleria fowleri, which is isolated in cases of Primary Amebic meningoencephalitis, but two other amoeba as well. Which ones does this test detect? Detecting amoeba in the laboratory is challenging due to lack of tests and trained personnel. How does this test compare to others? Tune in to find out.

Link to article: https://www.adventhealth.com/medical/adventhealthmd/news/adventhealth-physician-and-team-develop-a-new-test-quickly-detect-brain-eating-amoebas

In this week's episode we go outside of Clinical Microbiology into Marine Microbiology. What better way to do that than talking with Dr. Jeanette Davis, a.k.a. Dr. Ocean. How do you become a Marine Microbiologist? What kind of work do they do? Besides her work, Dr. Davis is also a published author. Tune in to this episode to learn more!

Dr. Ocean's website: https://drjeanettedavis.com

This episode features a conversation with Callum, an Infectious Disease physician and one of the co-hosts of ID:iots, an infectious disease podcast. What is their podcast about? What kind of work does an Infectious Disease doctor do? How do their work relates to the laboratory? Tune in for a great talk about the laboratory, challenges we have, and more.

Link to ID:iots podcast: https://idiotspodcasting.buzzsprout.com

This episodes is about microbes in food. It features a conversation with Dr. Andrea Prinzi. Those of us that work in Microbiology are familiar with foods such as yogurt containing microbes. What about feta cheese? Enterococcus in your food? Tune in to find out more about this interesting topic that includes a popular meat substitute.

Link to article: https://asm.org/Articles/2021/January/Microbes-That-Span-the-Clinical-Lab-and-Your-Groce

One of the ways of assessing and reinforcing a Microbiology student's learning is by giving them unknown organisms. They typically get a broth containing the organism, and they plate it on agar, and perform a gram stain and biochemical testing to properly identify the organism. How can this concept be applied online? This is what this episode is about. Learn how two educators from the University of Nebraska Medical Center incorporated the use of unknowns to remote teaching. How did the students do? How was this done? Tune in to find out.

Link to article: https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.00071-22

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the authors :

[email protected]

[email protected]