In sickness and in health

Microbiologists play a major part in finding ways of identifying, preventing and treating infectious diseases such as TB, a bacterial disease, and the viral infection 'flu. Some fungi cause minor infections such as thrush, dandruff and athlete's foot although they can also cause more serious infections in people with compromised immune systems.

Microbiologists are also helping to pioneer gene therapy techniques against genetic disorders such as cystic fibrosis and inherited cancers. Viruses are used to introduce genes carrying the desired characteristic into the cell nuclei of the host organism. Gene technology also has many applications in the development of medicines and diagnostics.

Hospitals

Microbiologists in hospital laboratories (Biomedical Scientists) deal with samples from patients, isolating and identifying the microbes that cause illness and giving advice on appropriate treatment. They also try to prevent patients from picking up infections in wards or operating theatres, and to trace and eliminate any infections which may occur. Opportunities exist too in the National Blood Service and veterinary establishments.

Health Protection Agency (HPA)

The prevention of disease has a far greater impact on the population at large than the treatment of sick people. Microbiologists in the HPA monitor pathogens from patients and the environment. In this way, a disease such as 'flu can be tracked and if there is risk of an epidemic, vulnerable people can be immunized against it.

Microbiologists in HPA laboratories (like their hospital colleagues) isolate and identify pathogens. Their records are analysed centrally by computer to provide a continuous picture of the progress of infections and the information is used by health authorities in the control of disease.

HPA microbiologists also track down the restaurant kitchen or batch of factory-prepared food that are the source of a Salmonella food poisoning outbreak, or find the air-conditioning system harbouring the Legionella bacteria responsible for an outbreak of Legionnaire's disease.

Food, milk and water supplies arealso routinely tested to ensure that they are of good microbiological quality and not contaminated.

There are two central and about 50 local HPA laboratories employing microbiologists in the UK.
A number of private laboratories also carry out this kind of work.

Microbial genomics

Some microbiologists study the structure and function of microbial genomes, sequencing and identifying the genes of organisms which cause illness. We hope this knowledge will lead to better design of therapies against individual pathogenic organisms. This technology is also used to improve understanding of beneficial microbes such as those living in the gut.

Medical research

Medical microbiologists also work in research institutes and universities where they study topics such as how diseases develop or the interaction between pathogenic microbes and host cells.

Some industrial research and development sites employ medical microbiologists to work on the development of medicines and vaccines.