Instructions for Your Microbiology Presentation

 

You will be required to write a research paper on a microorganism-caused disease.  Below are suggestions to help your presentation be an A⁺ success!

 

Choose a microbe/disease that interests and excites you from the list below.  You will select your organism using the course Wiki.  The Wiki is located via the Tools link located to the left of the Blackboard course screen.   Click and find the Wiki link at the bottom of the page, click and edit to add your Pathogen, your name, and time you selected.  Each student is required to have a unique pathogen. NO DUPLICATIONS!

 

           

 

Staphylococcus aureus

Varicella virus (chickenpox/shingles)

Herpes Simplex virus

Bacillus anthracis

Listeria monocytogenes

Rickettsia prowazekii and R. typhi

Streptococcus pyogenes  

Yersinia pestis

Plasmodium species

Influenza virus

Clostridium perfringens  

Candida albicans  

Salmonella typhi

Mycobacterium leprae

Rabies           

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Escherichia coli 0157:H7

HIV-1and HIV-2

Vibrio cholera

Borrelia burgdorferi

Neisseria gonorrhoeae

Ebolavirus

Clostridium tetani

Rickettsia rickettsii

Treponema pallidum

Chlamydia trachomatis

Francisella tularensis

Clostridium difficile

Bordetella pertussis

Helicobacter pylori

Trepanosoma cruzi

Legionella pneumophila

Hepatitis B

Human papillomavirus (HPV)

SARS CoV-2

 

                                                                                      

Please Note:  I reserve the right to require you to choose a particular pathogen should there be a Wiki dispute.

Presentation Overview

 

Essays should be a minimum of 1500 words without exceeding 2500 words. The focus of the presentation should be on microbiology.  Apply the concepts and vocabulary you learn in class to your specific microbe.  The majority of the paper should focus on how the microbe lives, how it infects the host, and how it is able to cause disease – which necessarily means that you must explain, in detail, your pathogen’s specific molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity!   How is the microorganism transmitted to the host?  What is the preferred portal of entry?  How does the pathogen set up the initial infection?  What conditions are required for growth of the microbe?  How does the disease progress? How does the pathogen penetrate or evade the host defenses, and how does it damage host cells?  What symptoms and signs are usually present in the host?  What treatments are effective against the microbe (if you list a drug as a potential treatment, describe its molecular mechanism of action, if known)?  How might the disease be prevented?  Try to focus on the microbiology of the pathogen and its characteristics emphasizing the molecular mechanisms that are involved as much as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

Presentation Overview – Continued

 

Specific Paper Guidelines

 

Your paper should focus on the many important and famous aspects of your microbe, including (as appropriate) the following:

• Modern discovery
• Description
• Pathogenesis
• Virulence factors – molecular mechanisms or putative* molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity (read Chapter 15, Microbial Mechanisms of Pathogenicity, in your lecture textbook, for more information).
• Treatment with emphasis upon the molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity
• Epidemiology
• Prevention

*The word putative is used to describe an entity or a concept that is based on what is generally accepted or inferred even without a direct proof of it.

 

Selected Examples of Resources for Presentation

 

1)         Journal of Medical Microbiology

2)         Center for Disease Research and Policy

3)         Todar’s Online textbook of Bacteriology

4)         Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

5)         Journals.asm.org

6)         Jmm.sgmjournals.org

7)         Wikipedia references

8)         http://virology-online.com/

9)         http://www.virology.net/

10)       http://www.microbiologybook.org/

11)     Virulence Factors of Bacterial and Viral Pathogens

12)     Anti-Immunology: Evasion of the Host Immune System by Bacterial and Viral Pathogens

13)       Casadevall, A., and L. Pirof.  “Virulence factors and their mechanisms of action:

the view from a damage–response framework.”  Journal of Water and Health 07.SI (2009):  2-17.  Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.581.8902&rep=rep1&type=pdf

14)       Smith, H.  “Mechanisms of Virus Pathogenicity.”  Bacteriological Review 36, no. 3 (1972):  291-310.

15)       Bacterial Pathogenesis – Medical Microbiology – NCBI Bookshelf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation of Student Microbiology Essay

 

 

Submitted as .doc or .doxc file extension only (100 points max)

Organization of topics covered                                                                                                                        _____/05

Proper use of microbiological vocabulary                                                                                           _____/05

 

Use of visual aids (clarity, effectiveness, appropriate number, balance of types of visuals)               _____/15

 

References are appropriate, used, and properly formatted                                                                               _____/05

 

Essay was submitted on time                                                                                                                _____/05

 

Information transitions are fluid, complete and accurate                                                                                  _____/10

 

Mechanism of Pathogenicity discussed in detail                                                                                              _____/30

 

Completeness, accuracy, and clarity of information (emphasis upon molecular mechanisms)                        _____/20

Followed Relevant Presentation Overview/Specific Paper Guidelines Instructions                                          _____/05

 

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