About Instructor

Office Hours

Course Documents

Resources

Biology 27 Principles of Microbiology
Fall 2012

Welcome to microbiology! We will study the microbial world, in lecture and lab, to appreciate the various and unique roles of microbes in the environment, the features that contribute to this diversity, and their contribution to human disease. We will also study the immune response to infectious disease, as well as the environmental and social factors that contribute to infectious disease. We will review some basic concepts of microbial genetics and their applications to biotechnology. Finally, we will explore microbes and food: the role of microbes in food production as well as issues in foood safety.

The format for BIO 27 consists of three hours of lecture and three hours of lab. The lab meets twice weekly for 75-minute sessions; since we are growing and studying microbes we need two lab experiences per week. The lab emphasizes microbial identification (staining, biochemical and so on), good preventative techniques and environmental analysis as well.

The syllabi for lecture and lab are listed below. Any other changes will be listed here as needed. PowerPoint lectures, assignments, study notes, and other information will be listed also. Check the site frequently for new information, interesting links, and so on. Review and homework assignments will be posted in due course.

If any students need to contact me during the evenings or on the weekend: I can access my Hartnell e-mail from off-campus, but you can also use my home e-mail. The address is stallard@redshift.com. I check my e-mail frequently and am pretty good about responding promptly.

Fall 2012 syllabus
Laboratory schedule (Lab MW 11:00-12:15)

Here is the midterm for retake. It is due at 1:00 sharp on Monday, october 1. NO LATE PAPERS ACCEPTED.

Review questions for lab practical of Oct. 22. We will go over these in lab if needed.

Review for midterm of October 26.

Review for second lab midterm of December 12.

Practice problems for plate count and serial dilution.

As for the final exam, 20% of the final exam is a take-home assignment. The instructions are posted here. I have assigned each student a different organism to describe, and the list of assignments is posted here.

Here are the remaining review questions for the final exam.

Power Point presentations

Introduction
Microbial ecology
Chemistry for microbiologists
Eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells
Basic microscopy
Survey of eukaryotic microorganisms (and their vectors)
Prokaryotic growth
Control of microbial growth
Microbial metabolism
Diversity of prokaryotes
Classification of living things
What you need to know about genetics
Basics of biotechnology

Antimicrobial treatments

Viruses

Immunology: innate and adaptive

Host-microbe interactions
Epidemiology

Pathogens of the skin

Infections of the respiratory system

Infections of the GI tract

Genitourinary system

Food microbiology

Environmental microbiology and applications

Review questions/exercises

Did you know that you can find images on the Internet through Google? Just go to Google.com and click on Images. Then type in the image you want. For example, I wanted to see Trypanosoma cruzi (a protozoan we have been studying) and got pages of images, some of which are very similar to our slides. You can do the same with algae, fungi, etc.- look for specific ones, or categories such as chlorophyta or zygomycetes. Try it!

Review questions for the midterm of September 21

Practice questions; an assignment from a previous class

Immunology homework due November 19

Review for midterm of November 19