In the past year, there have been ongoing concerns that sanitizers commonly used to reduce pathogens on poultry carcasses can lead to false-negative test results for Salmonella. Salmonella are bacteria that can make people sick with an infection called salmonellosis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that Salmonella causes approximately 1.2 million illnesses…
If one antibiotic resistant bacteria that makes the news often, it is MRSA. Whether it be the recent infection of newborns at a major clinic or the infection of a national football team due to improper cleaning of gym equipment, MRSA accrues a lot of airtime. MRSA stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus aureus is most commonly found under…
Next up for CHROM month, We examine HardyCHROM Vibrio and the risks of shooting back oysters on the half shell… Summer is fast approaching and beach goers everywhere are rejoicing. Warmer weather, sunny skies, and fresh seafood: what’s not to love about summer? Well, the warmer weather brings something else besides people to the coastal…
Some species of streptococci are unique in that they are classified or grouped according to the antigenic structure of their cell walls. Ever wondered how this was discovered? In this article, we will explore the history of how strep grouping came to be in common usage today. The genus Streptococcus contains many pathogens from…
Read More “Serogrouping of Strep:The Legacy of Rebecca Lancefield” »
Listeriosis or Listeria monocytogenes food poisoning is an infection which could be fairly mild or debilitating depending on the person infected. Young children, pregnant women, the elderly, or anyone with a compromised immune system are the most susceptible to Listeriosis. When a person is infected, symptoms of a Listeria infection can include sudden onset fever, chills, severe…
Read More “Contaminated Cantaloupes! Listeria on the Loose.” »
Boyd Woodruff was the son of an East Coast farmer whose ground-breaking research served as a lynch pin for fellow scientists to be able to harvest a plethora of lifesaving antibiotics from every day soil. Known simply as Boyd, he loved to read and explore the world around him. However, it was not until he…
Read More “Honoring one of the greatest antibiotic researchers… H. Boyd Woodruff” »
With Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) on the rise among hospital acquired infections across America in hospitals and care facilities, infection control specialists have been scrambling to prevent the acceleration of this toxic and destructive bacterium. Where does CDI come from? Where is it going? How can we avoid it? With nearly half a million impacted…
Since 1947, when the first drive-through restaurant was opened by Sheldon “Red” Chaney in Springfield, Missouri[1], the term “fast food” has become a staple of the American vocabulary. McDonalds, Burger King, White Castle, In & Out, and Taco Bell: all of these have become so monolithically important to everyday life, that many can recite the…
Read More “When Fast Food & Microbiology Make News, It’s Rarely a Good Thing.” »
Microbiologists are a very opinionated group of individuals, and it is, at times, difficult to get consensus and standardization on certain procedures. Whether to heat fix or methanol fix slides in preparation for Gram staining is one of those controversial procedures. It was never fully documented as to why one method would be superior over…
Read More “To Heat or Methanol Fix? That is the Burning Question.” »
Did You Know You Are Autophagic? And that’s a good thing, since it slows down aging and prevents degenerative diseases. For illuminating the weird cellular phenomenon of “self-eating,” Yoshinori Ohsumi has won the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Called autophagy – from the Greek words “auto” and “phagein,” meaning “self” and “to eat”…
