Daily Newsletter April 9, 2012

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Today's Topic: Introduction to Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbiology touches all of our lives. We are most familiar with diseases caused by microorganisms, but they are important to other aspects of our life. This also means that there are many career opportunities for people interested in microbiology. Here are a few of the topics that we are going to look at this week:

• Industrial product formation using microorganisms.
• Supplements such as yeast extract or whey protein.
• Biotransformed compounds such as steroids.
•  Enzymes such as Glucose Isomerase.
• Antibiotics such as penicillin and streptomycin.
• Food additives such as agar and vinegar.
• Alcohol such as ethanol (beer, wine, distilled spirits).
• Chemicals such as citric acid.
• Processes include Fermenation and Product Purification.
• Bioremediation
• Removal of chemical pollutants using biological (metabolic) means.
• Biotechnology
• Gene engineering for hormone production.
• Recombinant Vaccines.
• DNA vaccines.
• Metabolic Engineering.
• Transgenic Plants (using bacterial genes in plants).
• Sterilization and Decontamination
• Including Pasteruization
• Radiation decontamination of food.
• Food Preservation and Food Production
• Various
• Microbial Communities
• Agricultural Microbiology.
• Marine Microbiology.
• Microbial Ecosystem Studies
• Nutrient Cycling
•  Biofilm production
• Symbiosis among microorganisms.

Above is just a simple list of the various aspects of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

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Daily Challenge: What interests you in Applied and Environmental Microbiology?
Write about some aspect of applied and environmental biology that interests you (not medical). If you want, take a topic from the above list and do a little research about it. What jobs are available? You can go to asm.org (American Society for Microbiology) to look up job listings. This is an opportunity to explore the opportunties of microbiology.