Let's Talk Micro

This week's episode features an interview with Dr. Jeniffer Dien Bard and Dr. Amy Leber. Dr. Dien Bard is the Director of Microbiology at the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Leber works at the Department of Pathology Laboratory Medicine at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. They join the podcast this week to talk about the shortages of Clinical Medical Laboratory...

This episode features an interview with Claire Danielson and Sarah LewAllen form the Medical Laboratory Sciences Program at Michigan Tech University (MTU). They discuss an initiative that has been in place for quite some time: the Summer Youth Program. This program brings awareness to the Medical Lab Science profession by teaching high school students about the laboratory.

In this episode I go two types of media and one PCR test used for the detection of Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus ( VRE ). What is this media composed of? How does it detect VRE? What about this PCR test? What is it looking for? Tune in to find out.

In this episode I go over Enterococcus species. What are the most clinically significant species of Enterococcus ? Morphology? Biochemicals? Tune in to find out more about these organisms, and why are they so significant in healthcare settings.

In this episode I continue going over tips and suggestions you can use when you don't have supplies or are having difficulty isolating an organism. What if you are out of PEA or CNA? Will Lim broth help? What else can you use Martin Lewis and Modified Thayer Martin for ? How do susceptibilities help you isolate an organism? Tune in to find out.

In the laboratory we have all experienced a shortage of supplies. We have also struggled to isolate and organism. What do we do when this happens? What if you are trying to isolate a gram positive cocci but there is no PEA or CNA? What if you need to isolate a Pseudomonas aeruginosa from a mixed culture? Tune in to this episode to find out.

This episode features an interview with Dr. Alan Wu, Professor of Laboratory Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and co-Laboratory Director at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Wu has made numerous contributions to the laboratory field—and now he's bringing the lab to television. He's working on a show designed to accurately depict the clinical laboratory and high...

In this episode I continue going over beta hemolytic strep: this time Streptococcus anginosus group. What are the species that compose this group? What is the Lancefield group? What about biochemicals and morphology? Tune in to find out. Questions? Feedback? Send those to letstalkmicro@outlook.com Want to support the podcast? Here's how: Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/letstalkmicro Buy me a Ko-fi: htt...

This is a special edition episode. In lieu of all the recent information about monkeypox, Dr. Rodney Rohde comes to the podcast to provide us with some information about this virus. Dr. Rohde is an experienced microbiologist and educator. He is program chair and professor in the Clinical Laboratory Science program at Texas State University. Tune in to learn about monkeypox, including signs, sympto...

This week I continue going over beta hemolytic strep: this time Streptococcus dysgalactiae . What Lancefield group is it? What about media, biochemicals and pathogenicity? Tune in to find out the answers.

This episode features an interview with Dr. Lacy Moss, a professor at the University of Utah Medical Laboratory Sciences program. She joins the podcast to discuss an initiative launched by the MLS program and the University: the Summer Immersion Program. In this program high school students will learn about laboratory medicine. How does it work? How does it help the Medical Laboratory Sciences pro...

This episode features an interview with Dr. Andrea Prinzi, an infectious disease medical science liaison and a contributor of many articles published in the American Society for Microbiology website. She comes to Let's Talk Micro to talk about antimicrobial susceptibility testing and breakpoints. Many laboratories are or have been using outdated breakpoints? What is the significance of this? How a...

What is BacterioSight? As automation becomes a larger part of Laboratory Medicine, how could it help with urine cultures? This episode features an interview with Dr. Daniel Rhoads from the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Dr. Rhoades talks about BacterioSight, a deep learning model that was used to interpret images from urine cultures. Other areas of the laboratory already have systems where some results...

This episode features a collaboration between two Microbiology podcasts: The Microbe Moment and Let's Talk Micro. On this episode I am the one being interviewed. Find out what is like being a Medical Laboratory Scientist (MLS) in Microbiology and what teaching is like. What does an MLS do? What are the responsibilities of a supervisor? What about teaching? Find out by listening to this episode.

This week on Let's Talk Micro , we're tackling a remarkable story in virology—the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and a patient who may have been cured. Dr. Jingmei Hsu, a stem cell specialist from Weill Cornell Medical College, joins the podcast to break down a fascinating case involving a cord blood stem cell transplant. What's the role of the CCR5 gene in HIV resistance? Don't miss this comp...

This episode features an interview with Dr. Charlene Kahler from the Marshall Centre for Infectious Diseases Research and Training at the University of Western Australia. She discusses and article titled " Neisseria species and their complicated relationships with human health". Tune in to this episode to find out more information about different species of Neisseria and their significance in the...

This episodes features an interview with Dr. Ayesha Khan, one of the authors of a study performed on automated susceptibility testing on S. maltophilia . Three systems were evaluated. How did they perform? Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is a very significant organism that has a high level of intrinsic antibiotic resistance. What are the challenges with breakpoints? Tune in to find out.

This episode features an interview with Dr. Carey-Ann Burnham, Dr. Daniel Webber and Meghan Wallace from Washington University in St. Louis. They are the authors of a study where disk diffusion testing was performed on isolates that had an incubation time of 6 hours. One of the challenges in Microbiology is time. In Microbiology organisms are incubated for 18 to 24 hours, Tune in to this episode t...

In January there was an episode about Staphylococcus argenteus , a member of the S. aureus complex . This episode features an interview about a new member of the Staphylococcus aureus complex: Staphylococcus singaporensis . Dr . Jeanette Teo joins the podcast to discuss her study about this organism. How similar is S. singaporensis to S. aureus? Any virulence factors? Tune in to find out.

What is Todd Hewitt broth? Is it the same as LIM broth? What's in it? In this episode I go over Todd Hewitt Broth, and two PCR tests used for the detection of S. agalactiae (GBS).

In this episode I continue going over species of Streptococcus . This week's episode is about Streptococcus agalactiae . What is the Lancefield group of this Strep species? Is it pathogenic?. Tune in to this episode to find the answer to these questions and more.

Wohlfahrtiimonas what? Have you heard about this organism? It is a gram negative rod and it is very unusual. In this episode Dr. Paul Luethy from the University of Maryland School of Medicine comes to the podcast to discuss a case regarding this organism. How is it identified? Does it grow on standard media? What about susceptibilities? Tune in to this episode to find out. The case was published i...

In this episode I go over three tests used for the detection of S. pyogenes : two antigen based and one PCR. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one? Do negative results need to be confirmed by a culture? Tune in to find out.

After going over Staph and other gram positive cocci (gpc) in clusters, now is the turn for gram positive cocci in chains. This week's episode is about S. pyogenes or Group A Strep (GAS). What is the clinical significance of GAS? How do we identify it in the lab?. Tune in to this episode to find the answers to these questions and more.

This episode goes beyond Microbiology. It is about Medical Laboratory Sciences. In the episode I talk to Xander Fernandes and Maria Roussakis, two Medical Laboratory Technologists from Ontario, Canada. They talk about their website, medlabscholar.com, which contains great resources for Medical Laboratory Science students and professionals. What can we do to bring more awareness to this profession?...