-
Asked by ths100092 to Samantha, Jonathan, Sam on 2 Jul 2012. This question was also asked by ths100115, ths100102.
-
Jonathan Kay answered on 2 Jul 2012:
My laboratory doesn’t look for organisms such as bacteria, viruses or fungi. But we have a Scientist who does…
-
-
Samantha Weaver answered on 2 Jul 2012:
I don’t look for organisms in my job either but my husband does in his job. They mostly use microscopes, petri dishes filled with agar gel and glass slides with various stains which they put under the microscope to see what’s there. He had a cat’s ear to look at yesterday….
-
Sam Chilka answered on 2 Jul 2012:
I don’t look at organisms, I look at human cells which have been removed from people who are not well. I look at the cells with a microscope, and by the way the cells look I can usually tell what is wrong with the patient, and if it is cancer then what type of cancer it might be.
In my hospital we do have people who look at organisms – usually bacteria – if pateints have an infection – to tell what kind of infection it might be, and how to treat it. Doctors and nurses take a sample from the patient, and Samantha has described what they use to look at the bacteria in the sample. The aim is to try to get the bacteria to grow so that they can more easily tell what type it is.
Comments
Jonathan commented on :
One of the exciting things about pathology is that new technology comes along all the time. Sometimes it’s hard to know whether to use it or not.
One of the things I’m working on is small handheld analysers that we can take to the patient instead of taking a specimen from the patient to the laboratory. You might know someone with diabetes who uses one of these to measure their blood glucose.