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Meet The Microbiologist

Meet The Microbiologist

De: American Society for Microbiology
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Who is microbiology? Meet the Microbiologist (MTM) introduces you to the people who discover, innovate and advance the field of microbiology. Go behind-the-scenes of the microbial sciences with experts in virology, bacteriology, mycology, parasitology and more! Share in their passion for microbes and hear about research successes and even a few setbacks in their field. MTM covers everything from genomics, antibiotic resistance, synthetic biology, emerging infectious diseases, microbial ecology, public health, social equity, host-microbe biology, drug discovery, artificial intelligence, the microbiome and more! From graduate students to working clinicians and emeritus professors, host, Ashley Hagen, Scientific and Digital Editor at the American Society for Microbiology, highlights professionals in all stages of their careers, gleaning wisdom, career advice and even a bit of mentorship along the way.American Society for Microbiology - Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial Ciencia Ciencias Biológicas Historia Natural Naturaleza y Ecología
Episodios
  • Preventing Foodborne Pathogens With Plant-Derived Compounds with Karl Matthews

    Preventing Foodborne Pathogens With Plant-Derived Compounds with Karl Matthews
    Sep 25 2025
    Karl Matthews, Ph.D., Professor of Microbial Food Safety at Rutgers University, discusses ways to eliminate pathogens like Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria from fresh fruits and vegetables. He highlights the importance of preventative measures from farm to table, including the use of water antimicrobials, like chlorine, and photosensitizers, like curcumin. Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/6Wkef9RyUVE Ashley's Biggest Takeaways We consume billions of microorganisms in the food that we eat each day.Fresh fruits and vegetables that are not thermally processed are likely to carry a higher microbial load than cooked foods.Many of those microbes are not concerning to human health. However, when pathogens of human health concern are present, the food can become unsafe to eat.Scientists use many methods from pre-harvest through post-harvest to keep food free of human pathogens.Water antimicrobials, such as chlorine, and photodynamic inactivation using photosensitizers, such as curcumin, are 2 preventative measures that Matthews and colleagues are investigating.Curcumin is a natural chemical compound found in the turmeric plant. It is responsible for giving tumeric its yellow color.Curcumin is also a photosensitizer, meaning that it can absorb light energy and transfer it to another molecule to initiate chemical reactions that produce cytotoxic singlet oxygen. Featured Quotes When I look at [what makes fruits and vegetables safe to eat] as far as from a microbiological perspective, it's are they free of pathogens of human health concern? And so, we might think about organisms, such as Salmonella or the Shiga toxin producing E coli or Listeria. There are a number of processes and initiatives that are put into place, from the pre-harvest through post-harvest levels to try to ensure that the product is not contaminated with microorganisms of human health concern. Each day, we're consuming literally billions of microorganisms in the foods that we eat, and particularly the raw fruits and vegetables that we're eating that are not being thermally processed in any fashion by which you might reduce the microbial load. Oftentimes we think about the bacteria that might well be there. But we do know that there's viruses that could be present. There's certain type of protozoa that might be present. Many of us know of norovirus and the concerns associated with that particular pathogen. So, there's a multitude of microorganisms that might well be associated with fresh fruits and vegetables, but there's really a very limited number or types that are actually of concern from a human health standpoint. In my program, we're working on E. coli O157:H7, in particular. It's a certain serotype of E. coli, a diarrheagenic E. coli, what's also known as a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. We work with Salmonella, and we work with Listeria monocytogenes, but there's other microorganisms, such as Campylobacter, Yersinia, Staphylococcus aureus. All of those types of pathogens can also be associated with foods—and different types of foods, at that—and be of concern to the general public—the consumer. If we look at a lot of the processing of foods that are taking place, not only here in the United States, but globally, many times, what will happen is they're utilizing some type of a water antimicrobial, and I stress that because, oftentimes, these antimicrobials are added to the water to control the microbial load in the water. So, ultimately, you're not basically putting on water and putting on a whole load of microorganisms along with it. And also, you can prevent cross contamination through that. Here in the U.S. and elsewhere, we'll often put additional chlorine into the water. So, let's say we're increasing the chlorine concentration to 20 parts per million, or 50 parts per million, or maybe in poultry processing, they're utilizing peracetic acid. These are 2 common antimicrobials that are being used. What we wanted to do is find out could we utilize some other types of methods that might well control microorganisms on the commodity itself? And that's where we started looking at photodynamic inactivation and coupling that with the use of a photosensitizer. And in this particular case, the photosensitizer we were using was curcumin. The reason for working with curcumin is that it's naturally used in foods as a food dye. It's also used as a flavoring agent, and so forth. So, it's there, and it's being used—not just in the U.S., but [also] globally. And we thought we would try to see if we utilize this compound, could we have an additive effect to it? If you apply certain wavelengths of light, you can inactivate microorganisms, but if you apply that wavelength to something like a photosensitizer type molecule (curcumin), you could generate singlet oxygen molecules. And those singlet oxygen molecules would act like little explosions on the cell membrane and basically blow it apart and, therefore,...
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    59 m
  • Early Microbial Life with Michael Lynch and Vaughn Cooper

    Early Microbial Life with Michael Lynch and Vaughn Cooper
    Aug 22 2025

    Michael Lynch, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Mechanisms of Evolution at Arizona State University and Vaughn Cooper, Ph.D., professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, examine the origins and trajectory of early microbial life (EML) and discuss the collaborative report between the American Academy of Microbiology and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which explores the journey of life on Earth, from non-living chemical compounds to early unicellular life, to the vast diversity of organisms we see today.

    This episode is brought to you by the American Academy of Microbiology, a think tank at American Society for Microbiology and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which has been dedicated to advancing scientific discovery for the past 25 years.

    Links for This Episode:
    • Project Report Early Microbial Life: Our Past, Present and Future.
    • Article: The Great Oxidation Event: How Cyanobacteria Changed Life.
    • MTM Podcast: From Hydrothermal Vents to Cold Seeps: How Bacteria Sustain Ocean Life With Nicole Dubilier.
    • Take the MTM listener survey!
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    40 m
  • How FMTs, Coprophagia and the Milk Microbiome Inform Wildlife Conservation With Sally Bornbusch

    How FMTs, Coprophagia and the Milk Microbiome Inform Wildlife Conservation With Sally Bornbusch
    Jul 15 2025

    Sally Bornbusch, Ph.D., is an NSF postdoctoral fellow in biology conducting microbial ecology research in animal care and conservation at the Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute. She discusses how FMTs are being used to mitigate health concerns in wild animals in captivity, shares key findings about the milk microbiome from the Smithsonian milk repository, the largest collection of exotic animal milks in the world, and explains the science behind eating poo (Coprophagia).

    Links for This Episode
    • Why Do Animals Eat Poop? (And Why It Might Be a Good Thing).
    • Faeces as food: a framework for adaptive nutritional coprophagy in vertebrates.
    • Even Monkeys Should Eat Their Vegetables.
    • Take the MTM listener survey!
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    48 m
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