Introduction to Practical Microbiology

On this four-week course, you’ll discover the basic concepts of microbiology from a practical perspective.

Get to know how to identify microbes, what antimicrobial resistance is, and how you can analyse and interpret data in a laboratory setting, as well as advice for both low and higher resource settings.

This course teaches you about all the basic concepts of microbiology. Develop a solid foundation base for further study and practice in the field of microbiology by learning how to define microbes, antimicrobials, and antibiotics. Confidently navigate every basic topic, name, principle, and process of microbiology.

By the end of this course, you won’t just have a confident understanding of the classification, structure, and roles of microbes, but will also be familiar with their laboratory identification and the common sites of infection.

On this course you’ll learn how to define antimicrobial resistance, its mechanisms, drivers, and co-resistance. Learn how microbes and antimicrobials work, and how antimicrobial resistance (AMR) happens.

Discover the basic concepts of ‘superbugs’, and analyse the results of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST), including their different breaking points, cut-off settings, and their application in the clinical context.

Decipher how to take samples and specimens to detect microbes, as well as methods to study antimicrobial susceptibility in the laboratory setting.

Learn to compare bactericidal and bacteriostatic substances, see how they move through the body by studying PK/PD models, and learn how to increase the efficacy of antimicrobials based on the results.