A microbiologist in the Pathology Department

Have you ever been ill and wondered how doctors know what illness you have from a blood or urine sample? When it comes to bacterial diseases, the diagnosis is largely achieved by preparing the sample on an agar plate. This is simply a clear plastic plate that contains nutrients for bacteria to grow on. Various biochemical tests can then be performed on the bacteria to identify it and hence the disease it is causing. There is a huge problem though, bacteria account for up to 50% of all life, yet approximately only 1% has been described because the other 99% cannot be grown on these agar plates in a laboratory environment. It is for these reasons we need microbiologists.