Microbiology / Infectious Disease

Globally, five million deaths are associated with bacterial antimicrobial resistance each year, but the complexity of the issue is there is no single solution because we need to use antibiotics. It’s about finding a different way to live with it.

In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Division of Clinical Microbiology at Mayo Clinic, is joined by William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, to welcome the new year and discuss the increase of respiratory viruses.

Robin Patel, M.D., explains how a new Mayo Clinic Laboratories' assay can identify central nervous system pathogens that standard tests fail to detect. Rapid, precise diagnosis is essential to preventing long-term effects from these infections.

In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, is joined by William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, to discuss current respiratory virus activity and the importance of staying up-to-date on preventive vaccines.

In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, is joined by Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, to discuss the seasonal outlook of respiratory viruses, including influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, is joined by William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, to talk about the tick season peak that parts of the United States are experiencing, and how to diagnose and prevent Lyme disease.

CT scans and hiatal/abdominal ultrasounds could not uncover why, whenever he ate steak, Joseph Ducaji experienced severe stomach problems, itchy hives, chills, and nausea. It took specialized testing from Mayo Clinic to unlock a little-known condition caused by a tick bite (and, no, it’s not Lyme disease).

In this month's "Hot Topic," Bobbi Pritt, M.D., describes the challenges to traditional microscopy for the detection of protozoa in stool specimens, lists potential uses of artificial intelligence in parasite detection, and discusses workflow modifications that may be needed when implementing digital slide scanning and AI-assisted interpretation.

In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, and Elitza Theel, Ph.D., director of the Infectious Diseases Serology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, talk about West Nile virus and why laboratories and the public need to be aware as mosquitoes reemerge.

In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, and Nancy Wengenack, Ph.D., director of the Mycology and Mycobacteriology Laboratories at Mayo Clinic, discuss the increased focus on fungi and why emerging fungal infections can be concerning for health care facilities.

As warm weather returns so do vector-borne diseases transmitted by ticks and mosquitos. In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, and William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, discuss the increasing rates of tick-borne diseases and how to test for and prevent them. Listen to learn more.

Elitza Theel, Ph.D., explains how Mayo Clinic Laboratories' unique Histoplasma/Blastomyces test provides cost-effective evaluation for fungal infections that cause pulmonary illness. The assay reliably detects both Histoplasma and Blastomyces pathogens in a single test.

In this episode of “Answers From the Lab,” host Bobbi Pritt, M.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, and Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, discuss why avian influenza has recently been in the news and lessons learned from managing COVID-19.