CosmopoliTAN #37: Drinks and Worldly Conversation about Nothing (Page 79)

I know waaaaaay to much about Listeria. More than any other bug, actually.

Oh!!! We got REALLY excited once because we found a Listeria innocua (traditionally none pathogenic to humans) that was beta-hemolytic on horse blood agar. The beta hemolysis is a typical indication that it is pathogenic. It is now in our culture collection. It is VERY cool.

Funny science nerd story, but I think other people might appreciate:

Every year, my department has a symposium where we give 15 minute talks about our research progress for the year.  A few of us with more medical-focused projects use this as a chance to put in the grossest pictures and have a side competition for the worst.

I thought I would do well this year with pictures of my rat hearts .

Someone after me had pics of polycystic kidneys , which kind of tied mine.

The worst was pictures of periodontal disease .  She won by a landslide. 

In case you didn't guess, the pics are gross. 

That is really cool.  We have a few strains of Listeria monocytogenes.  One that isn't escape to the cytoplasm so that makes some interesting infections. 

Oh, and for our routine laboratories, we had a special positive controls of Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella abatetuba, made with a flourescing gene in them so if, perchance, we think one of the regular samples we test was accidentally contaminated, we can do a quick check. I love that. So easy and yet so cool.

Ok, that is awesome.  If we want to visualize our Listeria, we have to do the stupid staining process and use the confocal microscope.  It takes forever and it's a huge pain. 

HA! You guys are so old school.

Doubt it.  The organism traditionally doesn't affect the healthy.  Only the very young, very old and immunocomprimised.  Oh, and the pregnant.  Causes abortions.

Now, you want some fun, get a full dose of Staph enterotoxin, and you will have it coming out of both ends without control. 

Good times.

Artemis - 2008-08-01 11:42 AM

crowny2 - 2008-08-01 12:39 PM BTW, anyone see the last post in the Confessions thread?!?!?!

Yes. That's a little crazy.

I know Jim (Run4YrLife) had another account for awhile - BSM (Black Spandex Man) - but Marma told him no and took it away. Hasn't been another dupe that I know about for awhile.

Is it still there?