{"id":1787,"date":"2022-08-23T16:03:59","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T15:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2022-08-23T17:14:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T16:14:41","slug":"microbiology-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/bns\/microbiology-event\/","title":{"rendered":"What a “Wonderful World of Microbiology\u201d Event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Caroline Elaine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The School of Biomedical, Nutritional, and Sport Sciences hosted a recent microbiology event, advertised with posters around the School, email to all students and on social media platforms such as the School’s Instagram and Facebook. As a result, many students became aware of this event, including my friends and me.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The poster that was everywhere in the school and sent to us by email <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We were excited to meet lecturers, researchers, and Ph.D. students, and see what they are doing for their research. The best part?…. There were tours of the laboratories where they performed their research. These are the reasons why my friends and I decided to join the event. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what happened during the event? <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I had a pretty calm day that day because I only had two lectures that ended at 1 p.m., which was convenient because I could simply go to the event, which was held in the Dame Margaret Barbour Building at 1.30 p.m. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After my friends and I waited for a while, more people began to arrive at the event, and it quickly became crowded. There were groups of researchers, lecturers, Ph.D. students, and others inside the event room. There were many table with computer screens each with a different research group. There were also poster boards with research posters and we were encouraged to go and talk to the microbiologists, listen about their research and ask questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Different tables with microbiologists showcasing their research<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Research <\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One area of research that piqued my interest was the research of Professor Tracy Palmer<\/a> on S. aureus<\/em>, a bacterium that is commonly present in the human nose, it can live there and cause no problems. However, if S. aureus <\/em>gets into the wrong place it can become a pathogen that can cause diseases such as pneumonia. Prof. Palmer’s group was working on the mechanisms that cause S. aureus<\/em> to become pathogenic and kill other cells, as well as the antibiotics that can be developed to treat them. These researchers conduct research on S. aureus<\/em> by injecting bacteria into zebrafish and analysing what happens to the fish and the bacteria using a fluorescent dye and confocal and light microscopy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was very cool and super interesting!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Me and my friends listening to the research about S. aureus<\/em>. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Another aspect of microbiology that I heard about during the event but had not thought about before was that of oral microbiology. I heard about research into opportunistic pathogens such as P. aeruginosa<\/em> that can cause severe infections in the mouth and can be resistant to antimicrobials. I was immediately drawn into visiting this table due to the array of interesting skulls they had!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Microbiology researchers from the Dental School with an array of skulls.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We heard about yeast research, RNA polymerase, protein purification, antimicrobial resistance research and more. It really was a fascinating event and such a great opportunity to meet researchers and find out more about their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n