Microbiology and Infection Control Lecture Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, concepts, and historical figures from the introductory lecture on Microbiology and Infection Control.

Microbiology

The study of small life forms, including viruses, bacteria, fungi (molds, yeasts), protozoa, algae, and archaea.

Bacteriology

The sub-discipline of microbiology that focuses on the study of bacteria.

Mycology

The sub-discipline of microbiology that focuses on the study of fungi.

Immunology

The study of the body's defense mechanisms (immune system) and natural barriers against infection.

Infection Control

The practice of preventing microbial contamination and infection, as well as their spread from person to person.

Girolamo Fracastoro

A scholar who in 1546 recognized the existence of tiny living particles causing contagious diseases and named syphilis in a poem.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

The first person to see a microbe using a primitive microscope, who named these organisms animacules and recorded observations of dental plaque in 1683.

Animacules

The term used by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to describe the tiny microscopic life forms he discovered.

Edward Jenner

A researcher credited with the concept of immunization by demonstrating that inoculation with mild cowpox protected against smallpox.

Louis Pasteur

The Father of Immunology who associated microorganisms with disease, developed pasteurization, and created the first vaccines for rabies, anthrax, and cholera.

Pasteurization

The process of destroying pathogens in milk or other fluids by heating to $63\,^{\circ}\text{C}$ for 30 minutes or $72\,^{\circ}\text{C}$ for 15 seconds.

John Tyndall

A researcher who discovered that bacteria exist in heat-sensitive and heat-stable forms, creating the process of tyndallization.

Tyndallization

Intermittent heating by steaming or boiling products at $100\,^{\circ}\text{C}$ for 20 to 45 minutes over three successive days, with resting incubation at $37\,^{\circ}\text{C}$ to allow endospores to germinate into vegetative cells.

Ferdinand Cohn

A scientist who discovered endospores, which are dormant bacterial structures with high resistance to heat, staining, and disinfection.

Endospores

Dormant forms of bacteria discovered by Ferdinand Cohn that display enhanced resistance to heat, staining, and disinfection.

Joseph Lister

A surgeon who demonstrated the role of airborne microorganisms and used carbolic acid (phenols) to disinfect instruments, surgical linens, and hands.

Christian Gram

The scientist who developed Gram staining, using crystal violet and safranin dyes to differentiate bacteria into Gram-positive and Gram-negative groups based on cell wall composition.

Gram-negative Bacteria

Bacteria with a complex cell wall that makes them harder to kill, releasing endotoxins when disrupted that can cause inflammation, sepsis, or endotoxic shock.

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis

A physician who published work in 1861 on childbed fever, emphasizing the critical role of handwashing by medical personnel to reduce mortality.

Sir Alexander Fleming

The scientist who in 1928 discovered penicillin after noticing that a mold culture inhibited the growth of staphylococcus bacteria.

Wendell Stanley

The developer of the electron microscope, which enabled viruses to be magnified 35,000 times their normal size.

Robert Koch

A scientist who identified the specific causative bacteria for tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax.

Bacteriophages

Viruses discovered in 1915 that infect and replicate exclusively within bacteria and archaea.

Prion

Infectious proteins that cause fatal brain diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, which are not microorganisms.

Probiotics

Microbes that confer a health benefit to a host when administered in adequate amounts.