Today Dr. Joseph Zackular, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss some fascinating microbiology involving the bacterium Clostridiodes difficile (also known as C. diff), which can cause disease in infants, the elderly, and the immunocompromised.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Joseph Zackular

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Links for this episode

• An essay about siderophores in bacteria.
• The Giant Microbes "Cdiff" toy.
• The website of Dr. Patrick Schloss.
• A link to the #MattersMicrobial podcast with Dr. Schloss.
• An overview of Clostridioides difficile from a patient / physician perspective.
• A review article of research involving Clostridioides difficile.
• An overview on polymicrobial diseases.
• A wonderful opinion piece by Dr. Arturo Casadevall regarding the term "pathogen."
• An overview of Enterococcus in the gut microbiome.
• The technology of imaging mass spectrometry.
• An article on Stickland fermentation of amino acids among gut bacteria.
• Work by Dr. Zackular and colleagues discussed in this podcast, describing how FMT can be used as a treatment.
• Work by Dr. Zackular and colleagues discussed in this podcast, describing how different members of the host microbiome interact, and how that relates to disease.
• Work by Dr. Zackular and colleagues discussed in this podcast, describing the role of amino acid metabolism to changes in microbiome structure.
• Work by Dr. Zackular and colleagues discussed in this podcast, describing how Enterococcus can modulate the disease causing characteristics of C. difficile.
• An interesting paper showing that polymicrobial effects are more common than expected.
• An article arguing that there is no single "healthy" microbiome.
• A lovely primer on this topic for most nonmicrobiologists. 
• An overview on fecal microbiome transplants and the treatment of human disease.
• The website for the Center for Microbial Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
• A great video by Dr. Zackular and colleagues, well worth your time.
• Dr. Zackular's academic website.
• Dr. Zackular's laboratory website.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Send your questions and comments to mattersmicrobial@gmail.com