What is Microbiology?
"Microbiology is a specialized area of biology that deals with living things ordinarily too small without magnification (microorganisms)."
(Cowan et al., 2013)
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Bacteria (Bacteriology)
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Viruses (Virology)
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Parasites (Parasitology)
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Fungus (Mycology)




Bacteriology
Virology
Parasitology
Mycology
Tools In Micro Lab



The Microscope

Different Media


A Very
Hands-On
Field

To find the bacteria responsible for the illness, laboratorians use different agar media to grow and isolate bacterial colonies.
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Each type of media have a different recipe of ingredients that can:
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Inhibit growth of some species while promoting growth of others
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Visually differentiate species based on a bacteria's biochemical process (color change)
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Help grow species that are hard to grow normally
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Help protect delicate bacteria in transport to the lab
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Or a combination
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FAQ1:
Why does Microbiology results take so long?
FAQ1: Answer:
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Sample comes into the lab and gets processed.
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Patient samples must be processed into the laboratory information system (LIS), put on specific agar media and gram stained.
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The streaked agar plates and tubes must be incubated.
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Depending on bacteria species it can take 24 hrs to 5 days for colonies to grow
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Plates will be read
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Laboratorians must be able to differentiate pathogenic colonies from normal flora for further testing
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Confirmatory testing
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Biochemical testing
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Special agar
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Automation (Microscan or API)
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etc.
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Results are released
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From Lab to Hospital
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Automation


Sources
Cowan, M. K., Herzog, J., & Bunn, J. (2013). Microbiology fundamentals: a clinical approach. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.