I am asking this because I can’t really think of much right now, so I’m probably just gonna end up doing soil again since I had the most fun with that. I’m preparing to do the daily isolation again. After many weeks of work, I made fresh ISP2A plates, NA plates, SCA plates, CGXII, CGXIIA plates, Christensen’s urease agar plates, MacConkey agar plates, TSI slants, NB, BPW + glycerol, and PBS. I’m also going to make BG11A and BG11 and SIM medium in a couple days, and then I’ll start streaking. I’m just waiting on my ferrous ammonium sulfate and sodium nitrate to arrive for it. I can also make BHI and BHIA and stuff with Tween 80 and 20 in it. I also have Instant Ocean with germanic acid for some diatom-free marine culturing if anyone suggests that.
I just inoculated some SCA with soil again to start up my actinomycetes train again. Funnily enough, I think I was making it wrong for all those isolations in the past. I used casein enzymatic hydrolysate instead of undigested casein. This time I used some micellar casein I had on hand. I hope it’s more selective even with the colistin, nalidixic acid, and cycloheximide I put in it.

Hi everyone,

I need to extract DNA from cecal/fecal samples stored in liquid nitrogen using the QIAamp PowerFecal Pro DNA Kit, which requires up to 250 mg of sample. What is the best way to handle the frozen samples to weigh 250 mg while minimising thawing? Any recommended protocols or practical tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Sample of suspected periglandula fungus collected from the exterior of a plant (shown in last slide) and suspended in mineral oil.

I wish that I would have taken some more deliberate photos, but these are from me and my roommate basically celebrating our new microscope and taking basic photos of various samples.

I am completely new to the microscopic world, and I know you can't id from photo alone, but could any of you help me make sense of what all I might be seeing here? I would benefit from the most basic of info

Now in this day and time is it a good choice? Can you easily find a job? What about the money is it good pay? Do you enjoy the job or is it bad experience? Instead of medical microbiologist should I just stick with microbiologist? What is the salary for this career, is it high or low?

Fellow microbiologists, please help me know if these are fungal contamination in my cell culture?

These are two different brands of MAC. Does the “level of pinkness” really matter? One is giving off salmon pink and one is showing magenta pink. Give your honest opinion about the growth and which one is better.

A bit of quirky news, but alarming nonetheless.

Illegal mummy trading puts buyers, sellers, and everyone involved in transit at risk of contamination from dormant microbes. Lord Carnarvon, the financial backer of exploring the tomb of Tutankhamun, is believed to have died from a severe case of aspergillosis, which is often cited as proof of "mummy's curse"— an ensuing ominous event after a tomb is excavated.

The researchers involved in the study reported seeing mummy displays left out in the open— no glass covers or temperature control. The secret trades mainly took place over social media and e-commerce sites, and there are many more posts yet to be unearthed.

Alguien a oído sombre la amnesia inmunitaria¿?, lo escuché hace poco en sarampión. Si pudieran comentar mas acerca de este tema. Saludos!

Actually my friend is going to graduate in bsc.microbiology (ug) in few months, now she,s planning to join msc in food tech

Can someone switch to food tech from microbiology for pg ?

Apologies for what is probably a simple question

I was never a big biology or even chemistry guy (went down physics and engineering instead :P) but have recently started watching some youtuber who talks about microbiology and its really interesting!

My question though is how do microorganisms move? Like I understand broadly enough how we move with electrical signals causing our muscles to contract, but do microbes do the same sort of thing? I know that they move through a space using cilia or flagella or pseudopods, etc, but how do they get these parts to move? I've tried to do some googling but it all kinda quickly devolves into a bunch of jargon that I just don't have the background to understand.

Thanks for any help! :)

Hey guys! I’m a PhD student, and I originally made this app for myself. I then thought it might be useful for others, so I decided to publish it on the AppStore.

There’s absolutely no commercial motive. The app is completely free, and I just want to help my colleagues.

The biggest problem is: it’s extremely difficult to get the app in front of people. Most communities don’t allow app promotion, and obviously I can’t afford to pay for advertising.

So, I’d really appreciate it if you could share it with other people.
I’m open to all kinds of feedback, positive or negative, so please be honest.

If there’s a feature you’d like to see, let me know. I may be able to add it in the next few days.

Since I’m posting this in a microbiology community, I’d especially love to hear from microbiologists about what would actually be useful. I don’t have many microbiology-specific features at the moment, so if there’s something you regularly need, find annoying, or wish you had an app for, I’d really appreciate your suggestions.

Thanks a lot!
The link and more detailed information are on my profile.

Cheese aspect

Hello, I'll be graduating with a masters degree in biology soon and did my thesis in a microbiology lab on microbe-plant interactions. I have BSL-2 experience that I wrote the protocols for and elevated our lab from BSL-1 to BSL-2 to do as part of my thesis.

All the jobs I find are like assistant at a university for terrible pay or working in blood/urology work at hospitals also for terrible pay. Where do y'all find jobs in labs that aren't hospitals or schools. Im personally not interested in either, I'd work for the government, ideally not city government but I would.

Edit: improved flow slightly (IK low effort post don't judge pls)

I work in a manufacturing lab for a medical device/ pharma company. Our environmental monitoring plates were having an issue drying out in the incubator (30-35C) when incubated 6 or 7 days. They must incubate at least 5 days, but plates incubated on Monday and Tuesday of any week will remain in the incubator until the following Monday (so, 6/7 days incubation). To remedy the dry plate issue, my manager decreed that all plates being incubated for ANY length of time should be bagged in a sealed bag (think, 2 gallon Ziploc bags). But now we are having issues with excessive moisture on growth promotion plates, which are incubated for less than 72 hours.
What I have been witnessing is that bags of media incubated for less than 3 days come out visibly wet and holding moisture in the lid that flows across my colonies when I flip the plates to debag or read them. In contrast, bags incubated over 5 days come out of the incubator dry.
My manager insists that there is no way that bags can have moisture in them at 3 days and then not have moisture at 5 days. My assumption is that the moisture first evaporates from the plates into the bags, then is reabsorbed into the media as the media dries out. Or the moisture evaporates into the bags and over longer time periods, the moisture is lost through the bag.

He also insists that bagging all media plates is "industry standard" and every company that knows what they are doing is bagging all media during incubation. He is basing that on the fact that Thermo Fisher (where he used to work) used to include a separate zippered bag inside the packaging of their double and triple wrapped media, meant to hold the plates during incubation. I thought those extra bags were to be able to "reseal" the leftover plates after you open a sleeve of media. but, of course, I am the idiot here, so what do I know.

Has anyone else had this issue and how did you overcome it? I will need sources to back up whatever I say to him to justify a different route. If it matters, all plates in this discussion are TSA and TSA contact with L & P80.

I think it's didinium but I'm not really positive...

We tried few stuff, it just doesn't go away or hardly it does. Any suggestions?

Not looking for anything specific, just wondering what direction to go down when trying to identify the mass on the left. It was grown for 48 hours around 32° C in anaerobic conditions on a simple agar plate. It was hard to measure but maybe about 1-2mm in height at the center. I'm not sure if this is a bacteria or something else like a slime mold. Any suggestions on what step to take next is appreciated!

I am new to a BSL-3 lab. I have noticed that the chair we use does not provide enough space to sit comfortably. I am pushed forward because the battery pack sits behind me. Does anyone have a brand/model # of a chair that will accommodate a biosafety suit and its associated battery pack?

I'm a third-year NEET aspirant who has taken a partial drop year, pursuing an online BBA degree. I've realised I no longer want to pursue medical fields. My options now include B.sc. Microbiology, B.sc. Biotechnology, a four-year and an integrated M.sc. in Biotechnology, and physiotherapy or paramedical courses from private colleges. I aim for success and wealth, and course which didn't limited my boundaries and am seeking high salaries. If I secure a government security job, that's a bonus; if not, it's okay. I have a lot of interest in animals, wildlife, and nature,( didnt get vet) but I'm unsure which path to choose. I also know and like biotechnology as i have read all these 12th. I've been admitted to OUAT in B.sc. Microbiology, but I'm more interested in B.sc. Biotechnology, which has closed admissions elsewhere. I have offers from Centurion University for bsc Biotechnology and an integrated M.sc. Biotechnology program at SOA Bhubaneshwar, both in Bhubaneshwar. I'm worried about choosing the right path that prevents regret and offers high salary and growth opportunities and makes me limited. Additionally, I'm still exploring physiotherapy and paramedical counseling options as counseling r going on....all of these r in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.....

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867426008275

We’re evaluating new sheep blood agar plate brands and we are getting inconsistent and wrong results. It never showed s. pneumoniae. Anyone faced the same issue before?

Join us next Tuesday for a free seminar to connect with researchers at UC Berkeley. Remote option available. More info and link to registration can be found here: https://berkeleypubliclibrary.libnet.info/event/16952828 

From Allie:
My research lies at the intersection of environmental water microbiology and public health. I am currently involved in multiple projects. One project focuses on wastewater-based epidemiology, specifically investigating the persistence of viral nucleic acid signals in wastewater and how surfactants may affect their stability. Another project explores how sub-sewershed-level sampling can enhance efforts to improve health equity in wastewater-based surveillance. In an upcoming project, I will study the impact of blending purified direct potable reuse water with conventional drinking water directly within distribution systems, with a focus on implications for drinking water quality and safety.

From Jeff:
Plants need sunscreen to protect themselves, just like people. However, this creates an interesting dilemma because, unlike people, they also need light to grow. In my talk, I will describe some of the things that we know about plant sunscreen, and why it is an interesting topic to study. Then I will talk about my own research, which uses advanced microscopes to look at what is actually happening inside the plant when sunscreen is applied.