Bacteriology Methods for the Study of Infectious Diseases

Table of Contents

1. Fundamental skills for infectious disease research 2. Bacterial growth in solid and liquid media 3. Microscopy and staining 4. Antimicrobial testing 5. Cell culture-based infection models 6. Biofilm models 7. Gene expression analysis 8: Screening for common virulence traits 9. Community composition studies 10. Invertebrate infection models

Authors

Rowena Jenkins Lecturer in Microbiology and Infectious Disease, College of Medicine at Swansea University, UK. Rowena Jenkins, PhD, is a lecturer in Microbiology and Infectious Disease in the College of Medicine at Swansea University, UK. Her research team are focused on the effect of novel antimicrobial agents on pathogenic bacteria found in clinical infections, particularly chronic infections such as those seen in diabetic foot ulcers and cystic fibrosis lungs infection, and the impact on the microbiome within those conditions. Dr. Jenkins also has an interest in the potential for natural antimicrobial agents to improve the efficacy of conventional antibiotics against antibiotic resistant bacteria and biofilms. Sarah Maddocks Lecturer in Microbiology at Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. Sarah Maddocks, PhD, is a lecturer in Microbiology at Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK. Her research focuses on understanding the interactions between pathogens and their host during the infection process. The overarching aim of these studies is to understand how pathogens utilise or disrupt host processes and to explore and exploit novel ways of impairing these host-pathogen interactions to facilitate clearance of infection. Dr. Maddocks' research also includes biofilm and co-culture models, genomic and molecular analysis of gene expression to prove clinically relevant hypotheses.