Jennifer Stearns - Microbiology for Dummies

Jennifer C. Stearns, PhD: Jennifer is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University, where, along with Dr. Michael Surette, she pushes back the boundaries of medicinal microbiology every day. She currently researches how the usually benign bacteria in the respiratory tract can sometimes make people sick. Jennifer was captivated by the images of microbes in her mothers nursing textbooks as a child and eagerly soaked up knowledge about microbiology everywhere she could. Seeing her interest in all things micro, her high school biology teacher, Mr. Tunnicliffe, lent her a copy of the novel The Hot Zone, which forever made her love deadly viruses. She has harnessed the potential of microbes to improve crop plant stress and applied the principles of microbial ecology to the bacteria living in the human GI tract. She is currently inspired by the awesome diversity of microorganisms in nature and in our everyday lives. You can follow her musings on the microbiology of the human body on the Human Microbiome Journal Club blog at http://hmjournalclub.wordpress.com .

Julie Kaiser, MSc: Julie is currently a PhD student in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Western University in London, Ontario. She completed her bachelor of science at McGill University and her master of science at McMaster University and over the years has studied various human pathogens including E. coli, Salmonella, Streptococci, and deadly MRSA. She has earned numerous awards in communication for presenting her research at scientific meetings and currently outlets her thoughts on microbiology on The Human Microbiome Journal Club blog.

Michael G. Surette, PhD: Michael is currently appointed to both the Department of Medicine and the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University, where hes unraveling some of the dynamic bacterial interactions inside the complex microbial communities of the human airways and gastrointestinal tract. He earned his bachelor of science in biochemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland and his PhD, also in biochemistry, at the University of Western Ontario. His post-graduate research at Princeton University was on bacterial chemotaxis; this was followed by a faculty position in the Department of Microbiology and Infectious Disease at the University of Calgary, where he is currently an adjunct professor. Michael holds the Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Microbiome Research, has been on the editorial boards of several microbiology journals, and is a member of both the Canadian Society of Microbiologists and the American Society for Microbiology. Michael has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications on bacterial sensing and communication, antibiotic resistance, genetics, infectious disease, and microbiological methods. He has been invited to give countless seminars on bacterial genetics, behavior, biochemistry, and infectious disease.

For Ben and Lily, you turn all the lead sleeping in my head to gold.

Jennifer Stearns

To Steve, for his encouragement and patience, and to my parents, for buying me my first microscope.

Julie Kaiser

For Matt, Ben, and Carolyn, for patience, support, and wonderful questions!

Michael Surette

Because this is our first-ever book, we have many people to thank for both technical and moral support. Were grateful to Matt Wagner at Fresh Books and Lindsay Lefevere at John Wiley & Sons for the opportunity to write this book and for their valuable encouragement throughout the process. Thanks to Elizabeth Kuball for keeping us on track.

Several people contributed material to this book and were grateful for their contributions. Thank you to Kayla Cyr for contributing most of the online article Ten Reasons You May Not Need Antibiotics and to Josie Libertucci for contributing to the online article Fecal Transplants: What They Are and What Theyre Doing.

A special thanks to the entire Surette lab at McMaster University who hunt elusive microbes on and in the human body every day and to the anonymous asthma patient who donated the sample that appears on the cover.

Wed especially like to thank our technical editor Laura Rossi, in whose talented hands so many challenges melt away. Wed also like to thank our families for their unwavering support and encouragement throughout the writing of this book.

Publishers Acknowledgments

Executive Editor: Lindsay Sandman Lefevere

Project Editor: Elizabeth Kuball

Copy Editor: Elizabeth Kuball

Technical Editor: Laura Rossi

Project Coordinator: Emily Benford

Illustrations: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Cover Image: Jennifer C. Stearns