Microbiology
Microbiology subdivision include laboratories that are operating as part of other laboratories of Department of Biology, encompassing two major fields including “Medical Microbiology” and “industrial Microbiology”
Medical Microbiology Lab
In this lab the susceptibility of clinical bacteria to various antibiotics is determined by different testing methods including disc diffusion, broth dilution and agar dilution. The molecular mechanisms mediating resistance to different classes of antibiotics is studied by molecular methods including detection of plasmid-encoded resistance genes or sequence analysis of chromosomal genes associated with resistance. This lab also offers services involved in molecular epidemiology studies to identify the genetic relatedness of different bacterial isolates, identification of virulence genes of pathogenic bacteria and gene expression analyses. Moreover, evaluation of alternative strategies to deal with resistant pathogens such as phage therapy, searching for new synthetic chemical compounds or various secondary metabolites of plant and microbial origin or nanoparticles are also pursued in this laboratory.
Industrial Microbiology lab
The objectives of this lab are to familiarize students with different methods of screening and identification of industrially important microorganisms that have the potential to produce bioactive compounds used in the industries and medicines. Production of different microbial enzymes with applications in different industries, bioremediation (decomposition of environmental pollutants) and the production of probiotics and dairy starters are also pursed in this lab.
The industrial microbiology lab also offers research opportunities in the field of petroleum microbiology which includes Bioremediation, geomicrobial oil reservoir exploration, Biodesulfurization and Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery (MEOR). Microbiology students are trained to optimize the microbial processes to determine the factors affecting the growth and production of the desired products to achieve the best conditions using various laboratory and statistical methods.
In the microbiology laboratory, a suitable opportunity has been provided for graduate students to be actively engaged in numerous research projects using various devices and equipment such as microscopes, different kinds of incubators, pH meter, spectrophotometer, water bath, thermocycler, Gel Documentation System, centrifuge, Laminar flow hood and water distiller.