7 WEEKS LESSON WITH DR. SIEO CHIN CHIN

The first class of BMY3102 was on Wednesday, 25^th February. Differ from the last semester, we have two lecturers for this course. The first one that taught us was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sieo Chin Chin. We learned two topics with her, which are Nomenclature and Classification and Immunology. Her class was very enjoyable and I also learned a lot. Here, these are the summary of the lessons…

Nomenclature and Classification

Taxonomy : 1. Nomenclature – assignment of names to taxonomic groups in agreement with

   published rules

                     2. Classification  - arrangement of organism into taxa based on mutual similarities or

                  evolutionary relatedness

                     3. Identification – process of discovering and recording the traits of organism.

1. Nomenclature

§  Common rules in nomenclature

-          Binomial nomenclature (genus + specific epithet)

-          Both underlined or italicized

-          Genus capitalized, species lowercase

-          Genus may be used without species

-          Abbreviation : Escherichia coli

       E. coli

    

       Enterococcus faecalis (En.faecalis)

       Escherichia coli (Es. coli)

§  Process of naming new bacteria

§  Ways to describe strain

-          Biovars: strain characterized by biochemical or physiological differences

-          Morphovars: differ morphologically

-          Serovars: distinctive antigenic properties

*Type strain – first strain studied and is more fully characterized but not necessarily

   the most representative member

2. Classification

CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS

PHENETIC                   PHYLOGENETIC                GENOTYPIC

  -      Numerical                                   - 16S rRNA                                                   - Other

       taxonomy                                   - Phylogenetic                                                   molecular

       (S_SM & S_J)                                   tree                                                                  methods

   -         Dendogram

3. Identification

TECHNIQUES/METHODS FOR CLASSIFICATION/IDENTIFICATION

CLASSICAL                                        

          -       Morphological (staining, external structure, cell inclusion, cell grouping)

         -       Physiological and metabolic

         -       Biochemical

         -       Ecological

         -       Immunologic test

         -       Phage typing

           -       Antibiotic profilling                   

                         MOLECULAR

            -          Amino acid sequencing

            -          Nucleic acid base composition (%GC by HPLC and Tm)

            -          Nucleic acid hybridization

            -          Nucleic acid sequencing

            -          Genomic fingerprint (MLSA, RFLP, ribotyping)

            -          Nucleic acid probe

            -          Plasmid fingerprinting

                                                                                          

                      *Assignments

Bergeys Manual

Introduction to Immunology

*the topic that I love >,<

Immune system - defense system of individual against the thread of disease caused by infectious microorganism

Pathogen can be harm when :  gain access through the right roots

                                                 - attach to host cells

                                                 - persistence and evade to produce harmful changes

Organs of immune system - Primary lympoid organ

• production of immune cells
• maturation site for immune cells in the absence of antigen
• e.g: bone marrow, thymus, bursa of Fabricius

                                           - Secondary lympoid organ

• maturation site for antigen-driven immune cells
• e.g: adenoid tonsil, lymph nodes, MALT

Cells of immune system

Types of immunity - non-specific immune response

• external - skin

                                                      - mucous membrane

                                                      - normal microbiota

• internal - physiological barrier

                                            - phagocytosis
                                            - inflammation

                                - specific immune response

• humoral
• cell-mediated

Lymphocytes - B cell : mature in bone marrow

                                      has immunoglobulin (recognized undigested antigen)

                        - T cell : mature in thymus

                                       has TCR (recognized processed antigen on MHC

                                       molecules on APC

Features of good antigen - high molecular weight

                                         - foreignness

                                         - complexity

                                         - biodegradable

Antibody - IgG, IgA, IgM, IgD, IgE

Humoral immunity

- How antibody gives protection

- Antibody response

• Primary (latent period)

1.    chemical and physical nature of antigen
2.    adjuvants
3.    dosage of antigen
4.    frequency of antigen exposure
5.    routes of administration
6.    genetic makeup of host

• Secondary - rapid increase in antibody titer

                            - longer persistence of antibody

                            - shortened latent period

                            - higher titer

Cell-mediated Immunity  -      CD8 cytotoxic T cell

• Stages in granule exocytosis

1. recognition and binding of target cells
2. delivery of lethal hit
3. death of target cells
4. recycling of cytotoxic T cells

                                                                 -       Delayed-type hypersensitivity

• Aims

1. recruit monocyte
2. keep monocyte/macrophage at infection site
3. activate monocyte and macrophage

• Reaction

1. activation of CD4 T cells
2. migration of effector Th cells
3. recruitment and retentation of monocyte
4. activation of macorphage

Memories~

Last Class...

Friday, 19^th December 2014

Sobs sobs :’(

The very last lecture is today. Time flied too fast until we didn’t realize more than 3 months has passed. This is very sad.

But, lesson has to going on. We learned more about “Control of Microbial Growth” and also a new last topic which is “Antimicrobial Chemotheraphy”. This topic needs us to memorize many things as well. Fuh~ Around another two weeks we will sit the final exam for Microbiology and I don’t sure I can do this. Even when we play quizzes in Kahoot.it , I couldn't answer much. Huarghh HELP ME!!!

Sigh :(

Thursday, 18^th December 2014

     Today in microbiology class, we learned some calculation which I don’t like it. We calculated number of generation and also generation time.

No. of generation = [ log  no of cells(end) – log no of cells(beginning) ] / 0.301

Generation time = 60 min x hours / no of generation

Dr. Wan also gave us exercise about this part and we have to submit it. I took quite a long time to calculate it hehe. But, I still managed to submit it on time.

Next, we learned a bit about “Control of Microbial Growth”. There are so many terms to remember which I couldn’t imagine how I gonna memorize all that. *Sigh*

A FEW DAYS MORE~

Tuesday, 16^th December 2014

Another few days left before this semester end. Hmm...

Today we continued our lesson on isolation/culturing, mantaining and preserving microbes.

Aseptic technique

Streak plate method

Pour plate method

Anaerobic culture method

Agarose

Blood agar

EMB agar

New Things and New Terms to Remember :(

Wednesday, 10th December 2014


Today was a replacement class actually and we have it in Biotech 2.2. We moved into a new topic today but before that, as Dr. Wan promised she did a quiz for all of us according to the group. The quiz was based on the topic that we just finished yesterday. My group only get 5 marks out of 10. Hmm it's bad and I didn't helped much at that time :(

So, the new topic was Microbial Growth. I have printed the note and I wondered why the note was so thick? Is it going to be a long and hard topic? When I checked, it was full with pictures of experiment that has been done by our seniors and we also going to do the same experiments later. These help me to get to imagine how the microbiology lab subject will be going on.

Microbial Growth

Growth - refer to number of cell, not the size

Tolerance - survive under condition that they cannot grow

Phile - Specific conditions to grow

Tolerant - conditions which organism survive, but not necessarily grow

Physical requirements - 

1) light

2) temperature

3) pH

4) water activity

5) osmotic pressure

Chemical requirements -

1) electron donors

2) electron acceptors

3) micronutrient

We did not finish this chapter yet and will be continue it next week. Besides, Dr. Wan also mentioned about something interesting that I have never heard before.

Here it is!

Watermelon Snow

Red coloured snow

Chlamydomonas nivalis

Hmm... o,o

Tuesday, 9th December 2014


We have class today as usual. We learned about the Microbial Metabolism and Nutrition that we already read it roughly on last Friday. Many parts of these both chapter we have learned in foundation. So, it is not hard to understand them but to memorize...I got little problem with memorizing the lecture notes.

Things that I learned today:

Metabolism (Catabolic and Anabolic reaction)

Enzymes (Oxidoreductase, Transferase, Hydrolase, Lyase, Isomerase, Ligase)

Enzyme component (Apoenzyme, Cofactor, Holoenzyme)

Phosphorylation (Substrate level phosphorylation, Oxidative phosphorylation, Photophosphorylation)

Energy sources (Phototropgs, Chemotrophs)

Carbon sources (Autotrophs, Heterotrophs)

Electron sources (Organotrophs, Lithotrophs)

Besides, Dr. Wan also asked us to find  a few information and study our notes because she wanted to do a games the next day.

YAKULT TOUR :)

8th December 2014


Today was another special day for me and the other Microbiology students. We went to Seremban 2 for a study trip. We started our journey quite late, around 2 pm. We arrived at the Yakult factory after more than one hours in the bus. First, we went into the seminar room which we listed to the staff explainations about Yakult and it's benefits. 

Yakult is a probiotic dairy products made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacterium Lactobacillus casei Shirota.

Lactobacillus casei Shirota is a bacterium that found in human intestine and mouth. It has a wide pH and temperature range. This type of bacteria also is the most used as probiotics.

Probiotics are microorganisms that provide health benefits when consumed. According to Eli Metchnikoff,"the dependence of the intestinal microbes on the food makes it possible to adopt measures to modify the flora in our bodies and to replace the harmful microbes by useful microbes".

I learned many other things that day such as the benefits of Yakult which are can reduce the risk of getting cancer, give pretty skins, avoid constipation and many more. I also knew another types of bacteria which are Lactobacillus helveticus, Streptococcus thermophilus and Clostridium perfringens.

After that, we went into the factory side where we saw all the machines used to make the Yakult and how the process going on. This is how they produce Yakult there.