Challenges of the Unseen World

<p><b>Solving real-world health challenges in a learning environment</b></p> <p>You are at an exciting gateway into the world of microorganisms. With nothing more than basic lab equipment such as microscopes, Petri dishes, media, and a handful of reagents, you will learn to isolate, grow, and identify bacteria that live all around us. This is no ordinary microbiology laboratory course; not only will you learn how to streak plates, use a microscope, perform a Gram stain, and prepare serial dilutions and spread plates—fundamental skills found in every microbiologist’s toolkit—you will solve a series of public health–related challenges that many professional microbiologists encounter in their work.</p> <p>By the end of this course, you will:</p> <ul> <li>Determine the origin of a nosocomial infection. Using foundational and molecular methods, you will determine whether the infections occurring in hospitalized patients are the result of contaminated medical items.</li> <li>Select the antibiotic to treat a patient with Crohn’s disease. You will find minimum inhibitory concentrations of various antibiotics for a Pseudomonas strain associated with Crohn’s disease.</li> <li>Pinpoint the source of lettuce contaminated with E. coli. Using molecular tools you will investigate a common food safety challenge, antibiotic-resistant E. coli and the potential for spread of this resistance in the environment.</li> <li>Find the farm releasing pathogens into a stream used for drinking water. Using bacteriophage load in water samples, you will locate the source of fecal contamination in the water supply of a village in an underdeveloped country.</li> <li>Evaluate the potential of bacteria to cause a urinary tract infection. You will test for biofilms, quorum sensing behavior, and chemotaxis and assess which disinfectants would be most effective for sanitizing contaminated surfaces.</li> </ul> <p>Microbiology educators and researchers Richard Meyer and Stacie Brown have created this hands-on, engaging introduction to the essential laboratory skills in the microbial sciences that is sure to change the way you view the world around you.</p>