Microbiology and Immunology

This is a sample question. I have a test tomorrow and I am so lost with this stuff. help me out pls! 2) The placement of the Z-ring during cell division is mediated by the Min system and Nucleoid Occlusion. While knocking out the Min system causes a significant amount of polar divisions, nearly normal growth is observed. However, when min- is paired with other knockouts; such as slmA- (involved in nucleoid occlusion) or rodA- (involved in cell shape), cell growth is seriously affected. Describe a screen that may allow you to discover other novel factors involved in cell division. After finding a mutant, how will you characterize the role the gene plays in cell div…

Hi, The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a document called "Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)". You can find it here: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr6002a1.htm Reference 79 in the document is the following paper: Nakayama T, Aizawa C, Kuno-Sakai H. A clinical analysis of gelatin allergy and determination of its causal relationship to the previous administration of gelatin-containing acellular pertussis vaccine combined with diphtheria and tetanus toxoids. J Allergy Clin Immunol 1999;103:321--5. Link to the paper: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9949325 The paper concludes: "Most anaphylactic reacti…

HI, I got question for my homework and it goes like this. i got a culture of s.aureus that been incubated with AB disks and that's what came out: 1. benzilpenicilin 10mm [13-19] - resistant 2. vancomycin 14mm [11-12] - sensitive 3. ciprofloxacin 23mm [15-21] - sensitive now, the culture showed sensitivity for the 2nd and the 3rd AB but both of them are +2mm. so which one of those should i chose and what are the parameters that i should evaluate? thanks!

Hello everybody, I'm in the last year of the gymnasium as we call it here and I'm considering a future career in Biotechnology. I'm not very informed in this ,so I thought that I could find some info here from you users. Thanks for reading this post and spending your time!

Hello everyone, Unfortunately, I have suffered from some mild coprophobia (fear of feces) for the better part of my life, but have had it completely under control for many years. An event has ocurred that is causing the OCD symtoms on a major scale and I'm hoping that I can get it under control simply by learning more about fecal contamination and what the risk actually is. Here is what happened: My mother has MS and her caregiver (her sister) who was living with her apparently had a schizophrenic break this past week. My aunt has had issues with bowel control for years but was taking care of it with Depends etc. When she had the schizophrenic break, it took a…

Hello, I am doing research to see what technologies exist to rapidly identify the correct antibiotic in the case of neonatal sepsis (faster than blood culture and antibiotic sensitivity testing). Would anyone be able to help me understand what technologies exist? To give you some more background, NICUs in India (like much of the rest of developing world) receive a large proportion of neonates with septic infections. The majority of these infections are caused by CONS, Klebsiella, E. Coli, Psuedomnias. Typically a physician will 1) Start a blood culture, 2) Give a first line antibiotics 3) Wait for morphology and then sensitivity results 2-5 days later. 4) Cha…

Hey all. I'm new to this forum and I was hoping someone could help me with my mold project. My goal is to be able to grow mold I obtain from a source (rotten tomatoes or bread) and then sequence its DNA followed by a genome comparison to see what organism it is. My problem lies with the sequencing of the mold DNA. Since I obtained the isolated mold from nature, I don't know what primer sequence to create in order to sequence its DNA. Thanks.

Hi, everyone! I'm currently enrolled in an Introductory Microbiology course and our final project is to separate and identify two unknown bacteria. I successfully identified one, but the other is proving difficult. Here is what I have so far: Culture morphology - the bacteria grows very fast, with large colonies (about 5mm or so). Colonies are opaque, cream-to-brown in color, irregular, with undulate margins. The texture is like rippled glass. Cell morphology - they are Gram positive rods that form oval spores. They look fairly large and form chians. Some of the chains can be pretty long. Gram Stain: Spore Stain: Biochemical Tests: Blo…

This is my first post, and I am no doctor, so please go easy on me What I would like to know know is information on the following scenario : A healthy indivdual is vaccinated. One week afterwards, the individual is tested for the virus (not antibodies) the individual has been vaccined for . Are the test results going to be positive effect or negative for infection?

Hello all on the Science Forums! This is my first post, I hope it's in the right category. I've come with a question that I haven't been able to have answered by even the most professional gastroenterologists in the country (Australia). I seem to be re-acquiring some form of illness or bodily dysfunction which induces gastroenteritis that my doctors and specialists have not been able to diagnose. About once every 2-3 years for the last ten years, I have been coming down with the usual onset of gastroenteritis symptoms (forgive me here as I will try not to go into any more detail than is absolutely necessary) but the symptoms include profuse watery diarrhea (up to…

Hi all, I was wondering what kind of immune response should be sought for efficient antitumor immunity. Do you know any papers/reviews dealing with this issue? I have insights cellular response may be the best one but I have no reference for that... Thanks a lot in advance !! Chris

Hello, I am a Chemical Engineering student. Currently, I'm involved in a research meant to determine the potential of Eucalyptus and Rosemary essential oils to be used as disinfectants. We pretend to compare their antibacterial capacity against common quaternary ammonium based products. After reading a lot of scientific publications, I noticed most of researchers conduct their testings acording to the following standard method: BS EN 1276:2009 Chemical disinfectants and antiseptics . Quantitative suspension test for the evaluation of bactericidal activity of chemical disinfectants and antiseptics used in food, industrial, domestic and institutional areas. Test method a…

Hi all. please I badly need help about the acid fast staining technique for Mycobacterium smegmatis or Mycobacterium phlei as they both give me varying response to staining and in many cases they appear purple not red unfortunately. I'll be using them for training undergraduate students in the acid fast staining. Thank you all in advance

okay, i'm just a normal teenager, just want to find out... can anybody out there help me explain why viruses are not so counted as living thing? viruses and bacteria seem quite similar to me, can anyone out there help me simplify it?

I've spent many years dealing with lumps in my groin and under my armpits. I don't think MRSA is a disease, I think it's much more complicated. I noticed that over the past week I've gotten real sick with a stuffy nose and a lung infection on top of the bumps in my pubic hair that have been there for a while. I want progress, so thats why I'm posting. It turns out that my room got me pretty sick, so I'm taking steps to keep it sanitary and I'm going to document it (with the permission of the moderators). I will not take Bactrim because it makes me feel like my body is a warzone. Extreme discomfort to say the least. Doxycycline requires constant attention t…

I just finished the 4000 level immunology course at my university. I initially had no particular interest in immunology, but now I can't stop thinking about it! I have recently received several vaccinations in preparation for an upcoming trip to western Africa (I'll actually be working in an AIDS clinic, yet my question today doesn't have to do with how fascinating AIDS is with respect to immunology). Today, I started my oral typhoid vaccine, US Brand name Vivotif. I began wondering why this immunization was an oral immunization, while most are injections given in the arm. And then I remembered reading and listening to a lecture about mucosal immunity and oral tolerance.…

One of the greatest promises of nanotechnology has also caused the most upset; the application of nanobots in medicine. One proposal has been that nanobots aid or even replace our immune system. The purpose of this project is to discuss the pros and cons of this possibility, considering different levels of application. Nanobots would live in a person's bloodstream, and give an early alert to the individual's doctor should s/he contract some virus. his is the most likely use of nanotechnology in near-future medicine, since people will not trust the technology to do anything else. Advertising link removed by Moderator

If you inject a mouse with a single dose of spider venom (or any non-reproducing antigen), what kind of antibody concentration do you see over time? Of course, it will vary depending on the mouse and the antigen, but is there a typical curve you would see if you graph the antibody concentration every hour? The studies I'm finding deal with very particular cases - I'm looking for a more text-book/general case. On a side note, if I go hunting for text books, is 'antibody kinetics' the term I'm looking for?

I am a bit worried about the wide range of household products available which contain antibiotic. For example, at a rare visit to the supermarket, I noted that it was possible to obtain antibacterial toothpaste, washing up liquid, hand soap, washing powder, cream cleaners etc... I wonder if this over-use of antibacterial chemicals will raise a huge population of bacteria resistant to antibiotics? Has anyone tested for antibiotic resistance, and is there an environmental impact of which we are unaware - either in the human bacterial environment (gut, skin, nose, airways) or in the wider environment (household table tops, sewer water, waste water from homes)?

I was reading this article : http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/777380_10 but quickly became confused where it said "The complexes of anti-IgE bound to IgE are then cleared from the circulation. Thus, activation of allergic responses, at least to small amounts of peanut protein, can be prevented." I was wondering if someone could explain to me how reducing circulating IgE concentrations affect the response for peanut allergy. Since the IgE involved in peanut allergy is bound to mast cells by its Fc region, I was wondering if after allergic reactions mast cell numbers are decreased and hence need to make more peanut specific IgE to present on their cell surface. Ca…

hello everybody i need a help on how to eliminate the growth of colon bacteria on sheep blood agar ? i'm looking for fusobacterium that i have injected to mouse tail vien in colon tissue. the problem is that a lot of other bacteriaspecies grow up, inspite of the fact that i used thiamphenicol antibiotics in the culture plates. i will be glad if anybody have an idea on how to eliminate this background bacteria. so i can culture only my "darling" Fuso !!! thanks

Hello! For starters, I am not a student and have very little knowledge in Microbiology. Hell, I don't even know if I'm asking this in the right forum. I work for a company that cleans skulls, yes skulls. We provide skulls and skeletons to museums, schools and universities all over the world. My question that I have is very simple. We use warm water baths to clean a lot of the tissue off the skulls as well as to "degrease". Well, it doesnt always work as well as we want, and I'm convinced that it has to do with the bacteria that is forming in the water. I know that it is bacteria that is doing all of the work, but is there any ways to make it work better? Is there …

Hello everyone, I am having some trouble with a homework question for my immunolgy class. The question is " It has been demonstrated that mice with a mutation in Toll-like Receptor 4 (TLR4) that differed from the normal TLR4 by a single amino acid were resistant to septic shock caused by fatal doses of gram-negative bacteria. Would this mutation be beneficial or detrimental to the individual with the mutation? Explain." To me it seems that it would be beneficial because septic shock can kill. However, this seems too obvious and our professor never assigns questions that seem this obvious so im hesitant about the answer. Can anyone help me? Thanks!

B-cells mature in the bone marrow. The spleen is a secondary lymphoid organ where B cells reside awaiting antigens. I recall reading somewhere that B cells can mature in the spleen, but not in adults. Does this happen in kids and if so until what age and why? Thanks.

Why V-J recombination does not happen in Ig Heavy Chain,or why does VJ recombination takes place in light chain only not in heavy chain? Are there any enzymes that regulate whether to occur VDJ or Vj recombination?