- "This was an excellent refresher course. I do not perform microbiological testing in the area of the lab that I am assigned to, but this material was readable, informative, and fascinating. It is remarkable how much progress and understanding has been made in the past 26 years I have worked in the laboratory."

Sample of Objectives:

Bacterial Virulence Factors

• List features of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms.
• Identify the component targeted by the majority of antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections.
• Specify how pili assist in invading a host.
• Indicate how capsules contribute to an organism’s ability to resist innate and adaptive immune responses.
• List how extracellular substances produced by bacteria contribute to an organism’s virulence.
• Specify host responses that may be induced by endotoxins.
• Classify exotoxins based on their effect on cells.
• Name the cause of toxic shock syndrome.

Group A Streptococci (Streptococcus pyogenes)

• Compare the effects of streptococci on sheep red blood cells when grown in culture.
• List features that make the M protein the major virulence factor of Group A streptococcus (GAS).
• Correlate various clinical manifestations and diagnostic testing of streptococci.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae

• Specify why penicillin is not used to treat infections with Mycoplasma pneumoniae.
• Identify clinical manifestations associated with M. pneumoniae.