National Research Council postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD
Advanced Methods for Measuring Microbial Viability
Joy Dunkers and Nancy Lin
Biosystems and Biomaterials Division
Materials Measurement Laboratory
The success of any antibiotic or antimicrobial approach rests in the developer’s ability to demonstrate it can effectively kill bacteria or severely retard their growth. In addition, the success of a microbial therapeutic or probiotic product relies on knowing
viable count. Correctly determining bacterial viability, in other words whether an individual cell is alive or dead, is a critical and challenging measurement. Our goal is to develop advanced methods for rapidly, accurately and quantitatively measuring the
viability of mixed microbial populations. This project will focus on the development of systematic, reliable methods for measuring viability of individual cells in a population. Understanding the effect of sublethal dosing chemical, antibiotic or UV-C antimicrobial
treatments on viability and pathogenicity is critical insight that will help drive the success of real-world antimicrobial technologies. General approaches may include advanced imaging modalities, high-throughput technologies, standards and reference material
development, and validation against existing compendial methods. The development of techniques to quantify viability will provide the means to reliably screen mixed microbial populations
in vitro.
Fellowships are open to US citizens with February 1 and August 1 application deadlines. For more information, please visit the NIST NRC information page.
If interested, please contact:
Dr. Joy Dunkers Dr. Nancy Lin
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