Since the COVID-19 pandemic, microbiology and immunology have become more prominent. It was an emerging area before the pandemic, but this field has been boosted since the pandemic. The area of microbiology and immunology helps us study immune cells, which protect us against foreign particles that enter our body and various pathogens. There are two main types of immune cells- B and T cells- which play an important role in killing pathogens, infected cells, and cancerous cells. Both B and T cells can be isolated using molecular techniques and visualized under the microscope. Both cells have distinctive features. Among the methods that can be used to study B and T cells, flow cytometry is an important one. It employs fluorescence and laser to identify and characterize the B and T cells. The B cell produces antibodies, which are proteins.

In general, proteins can be identified and characterized by techniques like western blotting, immunoprecipitation, and ELISA. Western blotting uses antibodies that are specific to proteins to Identify and characterize them. The immunoprecipitation also uses antibodies to purify a particular protein. The ELISA technique uses a complex of enzyme-antibody-antigen reactions to detect and quantify proteins.

Proteins are also present in egg. However, the functions of many of those are not known. A combination of several techniques, such as SDS PAGE (used to separate proteins) and mass spectrometry (which helps determine molecular weight and different amino acids present in protein), is used to study those unknown proteins. Sometimes a green fluorescent protein (GFP) is used to track a protein or even a pathogen. For this, we do a process called cloning, where we insert the GFP-expressing gene in a vector, and through this, we can track protein or any pathogen.

Sometimes, when performing an experiment, we use several “model organisms” like chicken, mouse, rat, Guinae pig, etc. Usually, chick takes 21 days to hatch from the egg fully, but between 9th and 21st day, the experiment can be done on the egg. The growing chick might die during this period if we are a virus for our experiment. During the growth of any human being, or animals, numerous factors can affect it, like pollution, pathogens, oxygen, temperature, light, pH, etc. Temperature also plays a vital role in the growth of chicks.

Drugs or pharmacologically active compounds generally control the microorganisms. The least amount of concentration required for killing or inhibiting the growth of pathogens/microorganisms is called Minimum Inhibitory Concentration(MIC). Several antimicrobial drugs are used to kill or inhibit the growth of pathogens.

So, overall, microbiology and immunology hold immense potential, and several discoveries have yet to be made.