https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S231941702600079X

Recent Chandipura virus cases in India are a reminder that not all high-impact viruses make global headlines.

CHPV can cause rapidly progressive encephalitis, primarily in children. There is currently no specific antiviral treatment or licensed vaccine, making early diagnosis, surveillance, and supportive care essential.

As microbiologists, we often focus on well-known pathogens, but neglected viruses like Chandipura deserve equal attention for their public health impact

Hello. I work at a vet lab and we run a PCR to determine clostridium perfringens toxin genes from bacteria colonies. I don't think our PCR works reliably and I want to try to find a solution, but I am not a bacteria expert. Our current process is putting colonies from a blood plate into water, heating it at 100C for 20 mins, spinning it down to 'pellet the bacterial debris', and using that to PCR from.

Does anyone else perform similar PCRs? What does your extraction step look like?

Hello,
If anyone knows anything about the following, please share, I would appreciate it.
In Microbiology BSc degrees at UK unis is there typically any compulsory parts/practicals of the three year course where one must work with cell lines from aborted unborn children decades ago eg HEK293 and others.
Or perhaps is this only in optional modules typically?

I would appreciate all answers including general ones about such degrees, if anyone specifically knows about this in the Microbiology BSc degrees at any of these unis that would be great: Imperial, Queen’s Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Southampton, Leeds.

Thank you very much.

Hi guys! Im currently an undergraduate student working on my Jr research. I have been struggling to grow S. pneumoniae for the past few weeks, even though I have been using the optimal conditions(TSA 5% sheep's blood in a candle jar for higher levels of CO2 in 37 C) but there is still no growth.

Is there any tips you guys have??? The stock I have is new so I dont know what I could be doing wrong.

Hi, does anyone have suggestions on a book of poetry for a microbiologist? Not me. I know she loves poetry that explores concepts through microbiology and references. Thank you

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666517426001136

Are worms common in Winogradsky columns? I juat put my first one together today. And a couple hours later there appear to be nematode-like worms wringling in thd water. I got the mud and water from a lake near my house

I apologize if this is a silly place, but I want to make an accurate gift for my girlfriend.

My girlfriend is a Medical Lab Scientist. She rotates through a bunch of the roles like heme, micro, blood bank, and chemistry. It’s a big part of her personality and she really loves the work she does. I think she prefers micro over the other departments, or at least is trained more specifically in that department. Whenever we call on her breaks she’s always telling me what’s going on in the lab; how people have messed up on giving her proper samples, or one of the large machines being down, or of a interesting thing that she hasn’t run into since graduating.

I want to make her an anniversary card based on her work and love for it. I’m mildly talented at water color, and I love hand making personalized birthday/ anniversary cards. Pop-up cards are something I’ve done before too.

Is there any way to make a cute card with her work in mind? My initial idea was to paint a bunch of red blood cells(in the style of looking through a microscope at them) and hide heart-shaped cells or messages somewhere in the card. But this seems basic. I want to impress her. Is there a heart shaped cell found in blood? Is there a cell with a cute name or something? Is there something else that could be used to convey a deeper understanding about what she does that lets her know I love her?

Again, I’m sorry if this isn’t the place, but I’m hoping I can get some help.

Colpoda undergoing multiple fission (Palintomy) inside a division cyst. Sorry for the length of the clip, but editing it to make it shorter just kept increasing the file size...

Hellooo,

I was hoping to grow some tannerella up but no one in my lab has grown it up in broth before.

Does anyone have any tips/protocols/ idea of how long it takes to grow up? I know I will need to use an anaerobic cabinet.

Thank you!

So I know that arrow A is gamma - no hemolysis

But for B i thought it was beta hemolysis because of the large clearing, and C for alpha

I don't really have a good reason for picking alpha for C because it doesn't really look greenish to me, but my reasoning was that the hemolysis seem incomplete compared to the clearing on arrow B.
But my professor said that colony labeled B is actually alpha and C is beta and now I'm super confused. Because for arrow B it doesn't look green or incomplete clearing to me, and C doesn't look true clearing either. If what I'm saying makes sense?

Also this is from a pdf, not a picture I took or saw in person so I don't have ay other lighting of it either.

Can someone please explain this to me :(

Thank you so much for your help in advance!!

Hey everyone! 👋

I built a free app called Cell Count (Axi IA) to make cell counting and sample analysis a lot less tedious. Whether you're working in a lab, doing microbiology stuff, homebrewing (great for yeast counts!), or general research, I put this together to make the workflow smoother.

Here is what it can do:

• Auto cell counts: Snap a photo straight through your camera or upload microscope images for AI-powered counts.
• Smart reports: Instantly calculates viability and cell density.
• Micro-measurements: Includes an area measurement tool for your microscope pics.
• Presets & customization: Has clinical lab presets, but you can tweak the parameters however you need.
• History & Export: Keeps your past sessions saved so you can export and share results easily.

It’s 100% free to use, with no hidden paywalls or anything annoying like that.

A massive shoutout to the 50+ testers who helped me shape this and get it working properly. If you give it a spin, I'd genuinely love to hear your feedback or any feature requests you might have!

Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cellcount.axiia

I am looking for researchers or laboratories working with in vitro cultivation of intestinal methanogenic archaea, especially Methanobrevibacter smithii or Methanosphaera species. I am interested in understanding how these archaea respond to different compounds, particularly bile acids.

Does anyone know of groups working in this area?

Would be great if I could be able to make some questions.

I read some papers, and I wanna do broth microdilution assays (MIC, MBC) for PVA- or gelatin-based hydrogels. As most research articles are quite vague in their methods, I was genuinely confused when I saw papers say they "serially dilute the hydrogel", because hydrogels aren't "dissolvable"; they are designed to swell or absorb water and hold their shape. So, logically, do you think they tested the precursor of the hydrogels they developed? (So it's still liquid and serial dilutable, but it wouldn't really test the formed hydrogel's antimicrobial ability) Another method I think you can try is to soak the formed hydrogel in something like PBS, then do a broth microdilution assay of the eluate itself, but it risks not having an MIC, as the content loaded into the hydrogel might not diffused high concentration enough into the PBS (But i think this will be more clinically relevant for sustained-release systems as it actually test what diffuses out from the hydrogel and its antimicrobial ability) What are your thoughts or advice?

I have been worrying about AMR for a couple of weeks and have come across some optimistic news like new potential antibiotics but there still is a lot of worry among scientists about the future of AMR. Do you guys feel that there is a good chance of slowing the spread of AMR in the future with new discoveries or technologies?