{"id":69805,"date":"2023-05-03T13:37:05","date_gmt":"2023-05-03T19:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=69805"},"modified":"2024-07-18T14:29:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T20:29:43","slug":"unique-look-at-illness-causing-bacteria-and-fungi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/unique-look-at-illness-causing-bacteria-and-fungi\/","title":{"rendered":"Favorite ‘bugs:’ They may make you sick, but they can be beautiful (and some smell nice)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"UCHealth
UCHealth medical laboratory scientist Zoe Austin volunteered to create a bulletin board outside the UCHealth clinical laboratory. \u201cI wanted to make it easy for anyone walking by to experience the visual and tangible joy we all feel from the things we see and touch and smell all day,\u201d Zoe said. Photos by Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s just a bulletin board on a hallway wall in an out-of-the-way building on the Anschutz Medical Campus<\/a>. But it tells a colorful and very human story about a group of people serving a vital, unheralded role in patient care.<\/p>\n

In February, it was the microbiology team\u2019s turn to fill the right side of the two-foot by three-foot, glass-enclosed bulletin board on the second floor of UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital\u2019s (UCH<\/a>) Leprino Building. That\u2019s where much of the UCH clinical lab resides. The previous display about service dogs had grown stale. Zoe Austin, a medical laboratory scientist, volunteered.<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s background \u2013 a bachelor\u2019s degree in biology, an American Society for Clinical Pathology certification in medical laboratory science for microbiology, and six years working in the UCH clinical lab \u2013 may not scream \u201cbulletin-board artist.\u201d But she has a weakness for reflecting on her field in a philosophical light, and her combination of creative and perfectionist tendencies proved to be an asset in tackling the task.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, for me, microbiology is very hands-on. It\u2019s like a puzzle you hold in your hands,\u201d Austin says, standing next to her creation. \u201cEvery day, you\u2019re looking at a different culture, type, a different plate, and you\u2019re like, \u2018What is this? What is it gonna be?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She aimed to showcase microbiology\u2019s role at the hospital and also shed just a bit of light on the people who practice it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it to be, like, we\u2019re the real people behind the testing \u2013 behind the bacteria,\u201d she says. \u201cPeople sometimes think of the lab abstractly.\u201d<\/p>\n

She came up with the idea of asking her colleagues, \u201cWhat\u2019s your favorite bug?\u201d<\/p>\n

Shapes, colors, and even smells of illness-causing bacteria and fungi<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"The
The microbiology bulletin board in the UCHealth Leprino Building hallway featured a dozen lab scientists and their favorite bug, as well as the smell that helps identify it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBug\u201d is the team\u2019s colloquialism for the bacteria or fungi they identify in their day-to-day work in the clinical lab. That work involves receiving about 500 patient samples of blood and other possible bodily infection sources, placing those samples in agar<\/a>, and seeing what potentially illness-causing critters multiply.<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s bulletin board does not involve actual biological samples. That\u2019s comforting, given team favorites such as medical laboratory scientist Kate Denton\u2019s Bacillus anthrasis<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s what causes anthrax.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t ever see this,\u201d Austin clarifies.<\/p>\n

Denton chose it because of its appearance under a magnifying scope: The colony\u2019s fringes resemble locks of matted hair known as \u201cmedusa head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayla Avalos-Morales, also a medical laboratory scientist, chose two favorites that the lab\u2019s experts do see: Serratia marcescens<\/em><\/a> and Pseudomonas aeruginosa<\/em><\/a>. Both are complicit in hospital-acquired infections. But, Avalos-Morales explained in a brief description that Austin printed out and posted with web-culled images she affixed in actual petri dishes, \u201cthey both produce really pretty pigments. It\u2019s always a nice surprise to open a plate and see all the pretty colors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sierra Nelson, another medical laboratory scientist, also chose Pseudomonas<\/em>, \u201cbecause it smells good, like grapes, and looks pretty on chocolate agar<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPseudomonas<\/em> is definitely a favorite for a lot of people,\u201d Austin says. \u201cDepending on your smell receptors, it can smell like tortilla chips, or kind of like an artificial grape smell.\u201d She adds that Pseudomonas<\/em> is why a dog\u2019s paws can smell like Fritos.<\/p>\n

\u2018The most croissanty\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Madeline Dobler did not hop on the Pseudomonas<\/em> bandwagon. She\u2019s more taken with Micrococcus luteus<\/em><\/a>. \u201cJuicy cells, nice normal flora, and PIGMENT,\u201d Dobler told Austin. \u201cI\u2019m honestly a sucker for pigment in general.”<\/p>\n

\"UCHealth
UCHealth medical laboratory scientist Zoe Austin holds a plate of pseudomonas aeruginosa (left), an illness-causing bacteria that often smells like corn tortillas, and Candida krusei, an illness-causing fungi that smells like yeast. Photos: Sonya Doctorian, UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Veronica Boslawick, the medical laboratory scientist who manages the microbiology team, went with Listeria monocytogenes<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the tumbling motility, and I like that it\u2019s kind of trixy,\u201d she told Austin, leaving the definition of \u201ctrixy\u201d up to the imagination. She added: \u201cIf you have it in culture, you KNOW you\u2019re going to be impacting and hopefully improving a patient\u2019s life today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medical laboratory scientist Denise Kilates said she prefers Alcaligenes<\/a> species because they smell like apples. Her colleague Breanna Breen went with Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans<\/em><\/a> (associated with gum infections) because \u201cIt has such an utterly ridiculous name.\u201d Linden Northern chose Escherichia coli<\/em><\/a> \u201cbecause it was the first bacteria I felt confident identifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of the medical laboratory scientists specializing in mycology went with \u2013 no surprise \u2013 fungi. Joe McIntosh chose Curvularia<\/em><\/a> because \u201cIt makes me hungry because the macroconidia (big spores) look like little croissants.\u201d His colleague Jessica Kramer chose Trichophyton<\/em><\/a> species. \u201cThere is just something super cute about the little microconidia (big spores) in birds-on-a-wire formation,\u201d she told Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey deal with fungus mold all the time,\u201d Austin clarifies. \u201cI found the most croissanty image on the internet that I could.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serpentine cording, eye-shadow shades<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Medical laboratory scientist Lilliana Rodriguez chose Mycobacterium tuberculosis<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> \u201cIt is not my favorite organism, and I do not wish anyone to have tuberculosis,\u201d she told Austin. \u201cBut I like the bright pink color and the serpentine cording of Mycobacterium tuberculosis<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Medical
Medical laboratory scientist Joe McIntosh studies a fungal prep of Curvularia species, whose spores look to him like \u201clittle croissants.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Austin adds, \u201cIt has this really beautiful cording when you do a specific type of stain with it. I think the picture doesn’t do it justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin herself chose Candida<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love how cute Candida<\/em> species look in a gram stain when they are growing pseudo hyphae<\/a>,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI also enjoy all the fun colors of Candida<\/em> on CHROMagar<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, her web-harvested sample image looked like a miniature pizza on a tiny glass serving tray, each slice a different shade of eye shadow \u2013 beiges, blues, greens, maroons. Her affinity for Candida<\/em> was a late-breaking realization, she admits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was printing everything and putting it together when I was, like, \u201cOh, no, what is my favorite?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s bulletin board was slated to go the way of the service dogs sometime in April. No matter: She and her colleagues will be forging ahead with the quiet work of cultivating so many beautiful, troublesome \u201cbugs\u201d so UCH doctors can better treat the patients they came from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s just a bulletin board on a hallway wall in an out-of-the-way building on the Anschutz Medical Campus. But it tells a colorful and very human story about a group of people serving a vital, unheralded role in patient care. In February, it was the microbiology team\u2019s turn to fill the right side of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":69818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[162,586,9187],"class_list":["post-69805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-living","tag-infectious-diseases","tag-laboratory","tag-readysetco"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA unique look at illness-causing bacteria & fungi - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Microbiology scientists at UCHealth have "favorite bugs'' - bacteria and fungus - that have distinct smells, shapes and shades of color.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/unique-look-at-illness-causing-bacteria-and-fungi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Favorite 'bugs:' They may make you sick, but they can be beautiful (and some smell nice)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Microbiology scientists at UCHealth have "favorite bugs'' - bacteria and fungus - that have distinct smells, shapes and shades of color.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/unique-look-at-illness-causing-bacteria-and-fungi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCHealth Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uchealthorg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-03T19:37:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-18T20:29:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/05\/01131318\/UCHealth-2-Zoe-Austin.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Neff, for UCHealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Neff, for UCHealth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/unique-look-at-illness-causing-bacteria-and-fungi\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/unique-look-at-illness-causing-bacteria-and-fungi\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Todd Neff, for UCHealth\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/da7733ff5562e48e55c027d111ee5911\"},\"headline\":\"Favorite ‘bugs:’ They may make you sick, but they can be beautiful (and some smell nice)\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-03T19:37:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-18T20:29:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/unique-look-at-illness-causing-bacteria-and-fungi\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1170,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/unique-look-at-illness-causing-bacteria-and-fungi\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2023\\\/05\\\/01131318\\\/UCHealth-2-Zoe-Austin.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Infectious diseases\",\"Laboratory\",\"Ready. 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