How can you tell if harmful bacteria are growing in your food? Students learn to culture bacteria in order to examine ground meat and bagged salad samples, looking for common foodborne bacteria such as E. coli or salmonella. After 2-7 days of incubation, they observe and identify the resulting bacteria. Based on their first-hand experiences conducting this conventional biological culturing process, they consider its suitability in meeting society's need for ongoing detection of harmful bacteria in its food supply, leading them to see the need for bioengineering inventions for rapid response bio-detection systems.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Antibiotic-resistant bacteria like carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) pose a serious threat to human health. Some resistant pathogens can exist alongside our commensal microbiota at undetectable levels. Antibiotic use can lead to outgrowth of these subclinically colonized bacteria. A recent study sought to better understand the interaction between the gut microbiota and CRE during subclinical colonization and outgrowth. First, researchers exposed wild-type mice to the CRE _K. pneumoniae_. While the levels of _K. pneumoniae_ were not detectable after exposure, the post-exposure microbiome was disrupted. Then, administration of an antibiotic cocktail, ampicillin, vancomycin, or azithromycin induced _K. pneumoniae_ outgrowth while reducing overall microbial diversity. Vancomycin only induced outgrowth in a subset of mice. The researchers found these outgrowth-susceptible mice had differences in mRNA stability pathways and xylose abundance..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Infectious disease is a major disruptor of the pork industry. It can reduce production rates, trigger trade restrictions, and lead to large-scale mortality of the pigs themselves. Despite these serious impacts, the common diagnostic tools don’t capture the full range of potential pathogens, and the high rate of multiple pathogen co-infection further complicates diagnosis. Despite this, few studies have systematically characterized pig pathogens. To close this gap, researchers sequenced the microbial gene expression from pig clinical samples. This allowed researchers to characterize the diversity, abundance, genomes, and epidemiological history of a range of potential pathogens. They identified 34 RNA virus species, 9 DNA virus species, 7 bacterial species, and 3 fungal species as potential pathogens. Most were known pig pathogens, except for two of the fungi, which were novel members of the genus Pneumocystis..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.