Matters Microbial #128: C. diff from Nursery to Nursing Home April 20, 2026

Today Dr. Joseph Zackular, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss some fascinating microbiology involving the bacterium Clostridiodes difficile (also known as C. diff), which can cause disease in infants, the elderly, and the immunocompromised.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Joseph Zackular

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Links for this episode

• An essay about siderophores in bacteria.
• The Giant Microbes "Cdiff" toy.
• The website of Dr. Patrick Schloss.
• A link to the #MattersMicrobial podcast with Dr. Schloss.
• An overview of Clostridioides difficile from a patient / physician perspective.
• A review article of research involving Clostridioides difficile.
• An overview on polymicrobial diseases.
• A wonderful opinion piece by Dr. Arturo Casadevall regarding the term "pathogen."
• An overview of Enterococcus in the gut microbiome.
• The technology of imaging mass spectrometry.
• An article on Stickland fermentation of amino acids among gut bacteria.
• Work by Dr. Zackular and colleagues discussed in this podcast, describing how FMT can be used as a treatment.
• Work by Dr. Zackular and colleagues discussed in this podcast, describing how different members of the host microbiome interact, and how that relates to disease.
• Work by Dr. Zackular and colleagues discussed in this podcast, describing the role of amino acid metabolism to changes in microbiome structure.
• Work by Dr. Zackular and colleagues discussed in this podcast, describing how Enterococcus can modulate the disease causing characteristics of C. difficile.
• An interesting paper showing that polymicrobial effects are more common than expected.
• An article arguing that there is no single "healthy" microbiome.
• A lovely primer on this topic for most nonmicrobiologists.
• An overview on fecal microbiome transplants and the treatment of human disease.
• The website for the Center for Microbial Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
• A great video by Dr. Zackular and colleagues, well worth your time.
• Dr. Zackular's academic website.
• Dr. Zackular's laboratory website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

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