Download - Alli's class 112013

Transcript
  • 1. What is a microbiologist?10 mDr. Gregory Palmer, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin

2. What does micro mean?Small 3. What does bio mean?Life! 4. BACTERIA Single celled Microscopic organisms Micrometers (m) smaller than a strand hair 5. Where do bacteria live?Almost everywhere theres water 6. You are made up of:human cells ~1014 cellsbacterial cells ~1015 cells10 times more bacteria?! 7. A white blood cell chases Staphylococcus aureus D. Rogers, Vanderbilt University; dnatube.com 8. What do bacteria do? 9. Most bacteria (~99.99999%) are HARMLESS!Lactobacillus acidophilus Helps digest food, makes vitamins~0.00001% bacteria can cause diseaseStaphylococcusStreptococcusInfects human tissuecan make you very sickStrep throat 10. How do we stop bad bacteria??Important: bacteria and viruses are very different! Antibiotics dont work on viruses like the flu or the common cold! 11. Where do antibiotics come from? Humans have basically never come up with an antibiotic on our own we always steal them from nature! Most of our current antibiotics come from bacteria and fungi that live in the soil We need to find new antibiotics, because bacteria are becoming resistant to the ones we have now! 12. My lab looks for bacteria that MAKE antibioticsStreptomyces bacteria are known to make antibiotics 13. Collecting soil samples and isolating bacteriaWe spread soil samples on plates like these that have the right kind of food for the bacteria we want. When the bacteria grow up, they look like this! 14. Sometimes we just mess aroundBacterial Abe Lincoln!Bacterial longhorn!SCIENCE IS FUN!!!! 15. What did we learn? Microbiology is the study of microbes Microscopic, single-celled living organisms There are more bacteria cells in your body than human cells! Thats okay because most bacteria are harmless and some are helpful. Almost all the antibiotics we have came from bacteria and fungi that live in the soil! Its important to look for new antibiotics, to fight off resistant strains of bacteria that keep popping up in hospitals and the community 16. Thanks!I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire Cause I am a champion and youre gonna hear me ROAR