When you picture a microbiologist, what do you imagine? Someone looking through a microscope? Maybe someone in a lab doing research? In your mind, are they wearing a white coat?
Microbiologists work in so many different types of jobs. You might be surprised about some of the places you will find microbiologists working. So, I brought my friend Shelli Nauman on the Joyful Micobe podcast to share the various jobs she has had as a microbiologist.
And though she currently works with infection-causing microbes as a hospital infection preventionist, she still has a deep love for microbes. Listening to her talk about it will help you see how you can appreciate the microbial world and still deal with pathogens on a day-to-day basis.
In this episode, you will learn about…
- How to balance working with pathogens with a love for microbes
- The benefits of doing undergraduate research
- Microbiology career options
- How we can enjoy microbes and recognize them in our daily lives
Listen to my episode with Shelli Nauman
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What is it like to be a hospital infection preventionist?
Justine Dees
I’m so excited that you’re here. So why don’t you start out and introduce yourself? Tell us who you are and what you do.
Shelli Nauman
My name is Shelli Nauman. I am a microbiologist slash infection preventionist currently for Stormont Vail Health, a hospital in Topeka, Kansas.
Justine Dees
As an infection preventionist, what does a typical day look like?
Shelli Nauman
Unfortunately, right now, my day is filled with the Coronavirus. So, I assist doctors and nurses with caring for the COVID patient along with all their symptoms. So, once they’re ventilated or intubated, I keep track of their infections and how they’re doing. Of course, there’s more to my job than just COVID. I am over the NICU microbiology. So any trends that I start to see between the NICU babies because they’re all preemies. Of course, we like to watch that and make sure that we are not a source of contamination, or the environment that they’re in is a source of contamination. I also report all reportable conditions to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the CDC. I also keep track of catheter-associated urinary tract infections for the hospital. So whether that patient is on the COVID ward, or delivering a baby, if a catheter is involved, then I do surveillance for those.
Justine Dees
Okay, so it sounds like you’re overseeing lots of different potential infections that could go on in the hospitals and don’t become big issues.
Shelli Nauman
Correct.
Shelli’s initial interest in microbiology
Justine Dees
So how did you get interested in starting a career in microbiology?
Shelli Nauman
When I graduated from high school, I went to college to become a nurse. And so I started my college career taking the usual classes that everybody takes. And of course, general microbiology being one of those classes. I had never looked through a microscope before. So the very first lab, we’re sitting there, and we’re preparing our slides, the usual Gram stain, and I looked through the microscope, and I thought to myself, “Oh, my gosh, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” Because you need a microscope to see it, you can’t see it with the naked eye.
And so I thought to myself, “there is this whole world that is completely unseen without the aid of this microscope. I want to know more. I want to see more.”
And I immediately decided right then and there that — I mean, I’m in healthcare now but — that healthcare and the nursing field was not where I wanted to go. I definitely wanted to be a part of microbiology. And so that’s where it started.
Justine Dees
I love that I feel like I had a similar experience of just really loving the microscope. But then also when I would teach students about the microscope, and help them get to see it for the first time, seeing microbes. We looked at bacteria. And getting it into focus, and then seeing their faces light up. It was so amazing. I love seeing other people have that experience as well.
Shelli Nauman
Oh, absolutely. It’s like a light bulb turning on. And I experienced that as well. I taught general microbiology lab for a semester as an undergrad at K state. And so helping my peers to see this, what I consider, very beautiful world. And just watching their faces — it was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.
Justine Dees
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I know. It’s so exciting to share that with other people. It is like you said. It’s this unseen world that most people probably don’t get to actually see. And then finally seeing that under the microscope. One of the things that I like to try to share on the blog with people is that you can get a microscope, and it’s a lot more affordable than I ever thought, initially. You can get really simple microscopes too and still see microbes. And so I just love that it’s accessible.
Shelli Nauman
It truly is. And I know that in society, unfortunately, we only talk about the bad. And there is so much good that comes with microbes that I wish — and another reason why I support you and support the blog and now the podcast is — I want people to learn about all the other aspects of microbiology, not just the ones that are taught in the medical field or the ones that are talked about every day. Because unfortunately, it scares people.
I wish everyone could take general microbiology to learn that microbes help us more than they do hinder us on a daily basis.
How to balance working with pathogens with a love for microbes
Justine Dees
Yeah, that’s so true. And I want to hear you talk about that a little bit. What is that like to have those two things in your mind, especially as your job is focused on pathogens, the things that make us sick, and the “bad microbes” that are famous, but there are actually, a small number of them in comparison to the ones that are either not hurting us or even helping us. And so I want to hear, how do you balance that in your mind of thinking all day about the bad ones, but then you really have this passion for microbiology, and you love microbes and appreciate them?
Shelli Nauman
I would say I love fungi, and I love bacteria. They are “my two favorites” out of the microbial world. And we’re being inundated right now with Coronavirus. So, it’s nice to step out of that coming from a background in environmental microbiology. My background is mostly microbial ecology. And so bringing to the table and bringing to light…individuals and healthcare, tend to get complacent and think about the microbial world only as germs and how can we kill the germs? How can we control the germs? And so just having a daily conversation with nurses and doctors about environment of care and aspects that they might not have thought about. That we don’t need to just be on this rampage of destroying them but learning to live with them in our environment as well.
And so talking about opportunistic pathogens, and why certain things happen to some individuals and others not. And just seeing that we can hopefully build that knowledge so that the first thing that’s thought of is not okay, how do we kill it? Instead, learning to live with it. And something I’ve always wanted to see with the medical field (and this is part of the reason why I’ve chosen to work in it currently) is that my hope is the long-term goal is to assist those that have worked in health care, to hopefully use microorganisms to their benefit. And maybe one day, we can hopefully get to a point where instead of using antibiotics, for example, to kill a pathogen, maybe we can use a commensal or I guess, a symbiotic microorganism in order to fight that infection. That’s my hope, and that’s where I’d like to see it go. I think people are coming around to that. But right now, in health care, the focus is so detrimental that in the long term I’m hoping, out of this, people will educate themselves a little more and seeing it every day in the news and on social media and it’s almost the only thing that anyone can talk about. Hopefully, those of us that are in a position to discuss it can do things like what you and I are doing right now and have this conversation with each other of, hey, they’re not all bad. And then actually bring that to light a little bit.
What are opportunistic pathogens?
Justine Dees
Yeah, that’s really good. You mentioned opportunistic pathogens and I want to circle back to that and make sure that we define what that is and explain how those particular organisms are an issue in what you do.
Shelli Nauman
An opportunistic pathogen, it’s basically an organism I say, I always look at it as it’s sitting on the fence. So if you are an individual that, for example, you have some kind of lung disease or you know, COPD, emphysema, something like that, or cystic fibrosis, you are an individual that can easily “catch” a microorganism that may not be harmful to a person that doesn’t have a lung disease. So that can include fungal infections, bacterial infections, viruses, that to a “normal person” or a person that has that is not immunocompromised, they will fight off that infection and not even know that they’ve come across it. An individual that is immunocompromised, these pathogens are these microorganisms, I should say, can cause disease in those individuals.
Justine Dees
Okay, yeah, that that makes sense. And I studied an opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It’s one of those nasty ones that I’m sure you encounter in the hospital.
Shelli Nauman
Yes. But I will say from the other side of that, being a person, Pseudomonas is actually my favorite bacterium, for the reason that it smells like grapes. Have you experienced that smell? I always thought it was like grape bubblegum. That’s what it reminded me of. And I don’t know why, but yeah, it was my favorite.
Justine Dees
I know. It would get to where it really smelled funky though too. At the beginning at certain times, whenever I would grow it, it would smell almost like Fritos. You know, it’s funny how it can be different sometimes. But yeah, it’s interesting how these organisms have specific smells that they make. Some of them are good, and some of them are really bad. But there are really good ones like Streptomyces bacteria — they make the smell that comes after rain, which is called geosmin.
Shelli Nauman
I love that smell.
How do we pronounce fungi?
Justine Dees
I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone that doesn’t love that smell. And it’s just all the more delightful that it comes from the microbes that live in the soil. I love it.
I want to settle something with you. Because it seems like there are lots of different ways to say the word fungi. Fun-gee, fun-guy?
Shelli Nauman
Actually, I use both interchangeably. I was told once and I do honestly believe this.
So when you’re trying to say any microorganism’s actual name and including “fun-geye” or “fun-gee,” I’ve always been told, “if you say it with confidence, it really doesn’t matter how you say it.”
So, I just go with that. And, and I’m like, okay, so who’s gonna question it? I mean, if we’re gonna be that detailed or petty about how we say it, then I think we get into the weeds of something that isn’t important. So yeah, if you say it with confidence, I think you’re good. I’ve heard so many people say it every single way you can imagine. So I like both. And I use both.
Justine Dees
I like that. It’s like hey, you should feel comfortable talking about science. And if you mispronounce something, nobody cares. And if they do, they’re jerks.
Shelli Nauman
Exactly. Nobody’s going to hold that against you. Or at least I wouldn’t. So never. We’re talking about science. You can say it however you need to say it.
Justine Dees
Yeah. And a lot of times we’ve read these things, and we’ve never actually heard them said out loud. Like the word geosmin — I heard someone pronounce it differently. So maybe I say it wrong because I’ve only really read it and then heard it out loud after having read the word a bunch of times. And yeah, I think that’s fine.
The benefits of doing undergraduate research
Justine Dees
So tell me a little bit more about the different topics that you’ve worked on in your other jobs and what you’ve done as a microbiologist starting back from the beginning and then move forward.
Shelli Nauman
So as an undergrad, I was extremely fortunate to have not only some really good professors, but I actually worked for the microbiology department for K state for over two years. So I made all the media, prepped the microorganisms, and grew the microorganisms for the students, which was just amazing. I would push anyone that is an undergrad, or even a graduate student, to work for their microbiology department just because you get introduced and you get to work with so many different, awesome things about microbiology. So I worked for the micro department.
I also did research as an undergrad, I actually took Biology of Fungi, from Ari Jumpponen, the fungal ecology professor there at K state, and I bugged him for an entire year before he allowed me to do undergrad research in his lab. So when I finally got into it, I finished up a project that another student had already started looking at fungal communities on Bur oak tree leaves, which was seeing how that community thrives, and how fast it grows.
Justine Dees
And what does that look like?
Shelli Nauman
So believe it or not, I went into it thinking that, obviously, that fungal communities would build upon themselves, the older the leaf got, it turns out, it’s actually the opposite of that. So I took samples from when the leaf actually budded on the tree all the way to day 30 past bud.
Justine Dees
Could you see signs of the fungus?
Shelli Nauman
No. So we actually did PCR, gel electrophoresis, and gene sequencing to see who was there. And so I would cut out these little centimeter — I think it was like six centimeters maybe — in diameter samples from these leaves that I had to collect every day, from six different trees around Manhattan, Kansas. And so I would analyze all of those. And it turned out that the organisms right after bud through day 30 — at first there were all kinds of fungal, symbiotic relationships happening. And as time went on, the competitiveness between those organisms, — so some would die, and the others would thrive. And by the time we got to day 30, there were approximately five different species that had taken over those leaves and survived. So totally the opposite of what I was expecting. Because I figured, okay, they’re in the environment longer, these leaves are hanging out, they’re getting the sun or they’re near the soil. You’re gonna have more fungal community by the time we get to day 30. And that just wasn’t the case.
And so, with that research, I won an award. So I won the Travel Fellowship Award from K state and actually got to present that research. I was the only undergrad that was presenting fungal research at the genomics symposium in Kansas City, which was really awesome. So I urge anyone, especially undergrads, to get involved in your department and keep asking because eventually, someone will say yes. If you have the passion and the drive, you can do it. And it’s worth it.
Justine Dees
Yeah, get into research. Absolutely. It definitely helps a lot. It helps you figure out whether you enjoy doing research and to see what it’s like. There’s nothing like hands-on experience.
Microbiology career options: research
Shelli Nauman
Yes. So after I graduated from K state in 2015, I worked first for Kansas University, in Lawrence, Kansas as a researcher in a lab looking at antibiotic resistance with certain microorganisms, typically Burkholderia species, so looking at the genes that are turned on and off when that particular organism is exposed to an antibiotic.
Justine Dees
Tell us a little bit about Burkholderia. Where would we find that? And what does it do?
Shelli Nauman
So you’re gonna find Burkholderia in soil. It does cause a lot of infections for immunocompromised individuals with lung infections.
Justine Dees
So it’s one of the opportunistic pathogens we were talking about earlier?
Shelli Nauman
Yes, it is. So I did that for a little while. And I realized pretty quickly that I didn’t really want to do research, or at least not someone else’s research. Of course, if I had massive amounts of money and a huge lab all to myself, I would do my own. But as any scientist knows, that takes a lot of money.
Microbiology career options: Water Microbiologist and Lab technician at the department of health
So after that, I actually went to work in the water microbiology lab at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). I absolutely loved that job. But as a backstory with that, it was a dream job of mine to work for KDHE. Before I went to K state, I had a summer residency at K State for public health. And one of the places that we were to go to tour was KDHE, and I knew within the first five minutes of being in that building, that that was exactly where I wanted to go. And so that was my goal once I graduated. So then that did take place. I worked at KDHE in the water microbiology department. So I tested all the water throughout the state of Kansas. That includes ponds, streams, lakes, all drinking water, and mostly looking for coliforms. So Pseudomonas, and E. coli, included in that. And that was probably, that was a wonderful job. I just absolutely loved it. I kick myself sometimes for leaving that job. But things happen, and you progress.
Justine Dees
Well, it’s funny though, because as you go through the different jobs that you’ve had, we have a lot of similar experiences. So specifically with even testing water, I did undergraduate research in a lab that would test water samples and look for coliforms. And so it’s neat because I love that we’re very similar.
Shelli Nauman
We have very parallel paths.
Justine Dees
Yeah, very parallel paths. So it’s neat to hear about the things that you did, and you were in a completely different place. But these are all jobs that anybody that’s interested in going into microbiology, can consider and see the diversity of jobs. And then, you know, Shelli will keep telling us more about the different things that she did. But I think it’s so neat that there are all these options out there that maybe you don’t really know about, especially if you are going into your undergrad and you are interested in microbiology. I didn’t really know about all those different jobs that were available to me.
Shelli Nauman
The first thing you think of and when you say to someone, I’m a microbiologist, they think, oh my gosh, this person is a genius and they work at some medical lab, a hospital, or for a pharmaceutical company.
Justine Dees
Or they’re high-level researchers.
Microbiology career options: Food Safety Microbiologist
Shelli Nauman
There are so many different avenues and different things that you can do that no one really talks about.
Justine Dees
It’s neat because there are manufacturing facilities, and they have microbiology labs — they have to have microbiology labs. And so I think Shelli will probably tell us a little bit about that. But I also had a similar experience of working for a medical supply manufacturer and testing medical supplies to make sure that the sterilization process worked properly. And so go ahead. I just wanted to interject about that and talk about that these are different career options for people that are interested.
Shelli Nauman
Oh, yeah, absolutely. So you were talking about manufacturing. I also have worked in manufacturing. I worked for the JM Smucker company, so the jam and jelly company.
Justine Dees
So food! It doesn’t have to just be medical supplies. It can be food.
Shelli Nauman
And they really need micro people. So I’m just gonna say now that food safety is a big concern to so many people. And they do quality control or quality assurance in food manufacturing plants. And they need microbiologists because there are so many tests that need to be run before they can ship that food out to wherever it needs to go to get to our homes and our tables and our families. But they want to make sure it’s safe first.
Justine Dees
In a previous episode, I talked to Matt Kasson about moldy Twinkies and peeps injected with fungi, and he touches on the idea that these foods can spoil eventually. But talking about working at Smucker, you guys are ensuring that these foods are not going to spoil before their expiration date. And you’re the people that actually figure that stuff out, and then ensure that it’s not an issue in those foods when they go out.
Shelli Nauman
Absolutely. Because food safety obviously is important. I mean, this is why we have best by dates or expiration dates on food. And that’s how that’s determined is by doing this testing. And then, of course, also ensuring that it’s safe when it leaves our facility and all through the process. So from the very beginning when you just have some ingredients, all the way to the finished product. Microbiology is involved in every step.
Justine Dees
Absolutely. So you worked at Smucker, and I would be curious to hear what a typical day was like for you there.
Shelli Nauman
There are, of course, FDA regulations that food manufacturers have to follow. So it was my job to ensure that we were indeed doing what we say we do. So a typical day I would get there and I had different locations in the plant — so whether it be what was called a zone one or a food contact surface, whatever the food was touching, all the way to approximately 10 feet out from the food contact surface — I had to swab those surfaces and make sure that they were “clean” before, during, and after sanitation practices were performed. So I would start my day with swabs. Then I also tested the actual product while it was in process and at different stages of that process at different times. So that would require breaking down those food particles through a stomacher and then plating that.
Justine Dees
What is a stomacher?
Shelli Nauman
It’s a lab piece of equipment that works just like the human stomach and that you put particular chemicals in it to break down a substance into a liquid form from a solid.
There was also aflatoxin testing, which is produced by fungi. So when there was the use of corn and soybean and wheat and things like that in certain food products, and when we would get a truck of wheat, let’s say that testing would be done before the wheat would go into our big grain bins and silos where it would be stored. And then before use, it would be tested again, because there are parameters of “you can only have X amount” in usually parts per million, or parts per billion for a particular amount of wheat, or soybean, or corn that you were going to use. So I performed that testing as well on a daily basis.
Justine Dees
So it sounds like you worked with more than just jams and jellies.
Shelli Nauman
Yes. Which you would be surprised. A whole ‘nother subject, but you would be surprised at how much Smucker owns. Everybody knows them as the jam and jelly company. But they’re a big, big, big company. And a lot of food manufacturers are like that. You don’t realize that this one owns this one. But it’s a totally different world. I’ll say that. So but manufacturing is fun.
Microbiology career options: Quality Assurance Manager
Justine Dees
And then so did you have another job after that in manufacturing?
Shelli Nauman
I did. I was actually the quality assurance manager for a little while for a company called Reser’s. They actually make potato salads, macaroni salads, and ham salads. I worked at the “salad plant,” they also do burritos and things like that. So there are five of those plants in Topeka, Kansas, and I worked at the “salad plant” for a little while. So I managed over 20 individuals over three shifts. And I never saw myself as a manager. I’m okay with being the lab rat. So I left that position and went back to Smucker for a little while, and then realized that I knew I needed to do something else. It was time for a change. I did like food manufacturing. That’s why I stayed with it for so long. But my current position is challenging and rewarding at the same time. So I felt, obviously in 2020 with the pandemic, that as a microbiologist, I felt it was my duty to help. And so that’s why I’m where I’m at now.
Justine Dees
Yeah, that’s really neat. So, you said that at Reser’s you worked with salads. Were there any kinds of salads that we hear about outbreaks in?
Shelli Nauman
Absolutely. So you know, the mayonnaise or the mustard portion of that is what “gets you in trouble.” It’s the portion that you really have to watch the micro part. And then any vegetables that go into salads like that, whether it be the potato, or the celery, carrot, etc. You have to make sure it goes through a particular wash to keep microbes down throughout the entire process. And as everyone knows, it has to be cold. So once you get to room temp, well it doesn’t even have to get to room temp, but above freezing. That’s when microorganisms like Listeria and Salmonella really like to grow. And so again, making sure that the manufacturing environment, that the equipment we’re using, is clean, and that the food throughout the entire process stays clean.
Justine Dees
Did you ever have to deal with outbreaks or things that maybe had appeared as though you were dealing with an outbreak but it was all not that big of a deal?
Shelli Nauman
So I wish I could talk very frankly about that. But some things are available to the public. You can always read about things like that on the FDA website. But there were a few instances that I thought to myself, “Oh my gosh, what is happening? What happened?” So I can’t give you details, but I will tell you that there were a few times that a particular ingredient would come to us and it would already be open, or the truck that it came in wasn’t set at the right temperature for that item. And so in those instances, you have to basically just scrap it. And you have to say, you know what this is not safe for consumption, and we have to literally throw it away. That did happen quite a bit.
Justine Dees
Were you the ones who discovered it in the lab? Were you were the ones that noticed it? Or was it brought to you after there was already a concern?
Shelli Nauman
So both of those would take place. In a big manufacturer like that, you have leads and supervisors that are overseeing that process. And then you have the individuals that are actually mixing or cooking the potatoes, etc. So it would be both of those, because samples were taken all shifts, at all times for what would be finished product. And then, of course, what we called raw ingredient testing. So if anything — let’s say these, these potatoes, for example — came back and they were above temperature of where they need to be when they’re stored before they’re used, but after the cook time, then that would just immediately be thrown away. So you have to “temp” things all the way through the process. And if it ever reached above a certain parameter, then it was not allowed to be used. So it could be very stressful, especially if you need 1000s of pounds of cooked potatoes, and you only have 2. So with manufacturing, it can be really stressful in that way. But you also feel good at the end of the day, because you aren’t sending out anything that can make anyone sick.
Justine Dees
So what were the tests like that you guys had to perform? Did you get a sample of the certain lot that was about to go out or you had a certain number of samples that you’d have to test? And then what were those tests like? Did you have growth media that you would put the food in? Or how did that look?
Shelli Nauman
Yes. So we would have certain media that we would put just a little slice of potato on. And then, in the Smucker world, you just took a little tiny sample, maybe the size of your fingernail, and you would streak that onto growth media, depending on what you were searching for. So you might use what’s called selective media to search for particular types of bacteria and or fungi that are typical of what we see in the food environment.
Justine Dees
Yeah, that makes sense. Whenever I was testing medical supplies, we would get 100 out of the lot that was going to go out after it had been sterilized by radiation. And then we would take them and drop them into some liquid media — so some food for bacteria in liquid form or for fungi — and then we would let them grow for 14 days. And we would see what would grow in there. And of course, it was a little bit boring because you wouldn’t see stuff grow very often.
Shelli Nauman
That’s a good thing. That means everything’s working.
Justine Dees
Yeah, that’s what we want. But as a microbiologist, you have that curiosity and you’re like I just want to see something weird growing. And if we saw something weird growing, it was often because you contaminated it yourself.
Shelli Nauman
Yeah. Yes, almost every time and you’re like oh, that was me. Sorry guys.
Justine Dees
You have to be really careful when you have these types of jobs. You have to suit up with a hairnet and lab coat and gloves that go up your arms and then use lots of alcohol spray on your gloved hands.
Shelli Nauman
I used so much bleach and alcohol during my time in the manufacturing world. There were days that I would come home smelling like bleach because it was a part of everything that you did in trying to keep everything in that aseptic world and using aseptic technique. It just becomes second nature.
Justine Dees
This is a weird, particular question. But at my job, we weren’t allowed to wear makeup. So were you allowed to wear makeup at yours?
Shelli Nauman
So no, you could not wear makeup. You had to have your fingernails trimmed to a certain length — I believe it’s an eighth of an inch. And then, of course, I even wore gloves. But even though I was wearing gloves, I still had to adhere to that rule. You also cannot wear any kind of perfumes in food manufacturing. So obviously you can use deodorant, but you can’t spray your favorite perfume or cologne on you before you went to work or while you were at work.
Justine Dees
So it is interesting to have these really different jobs.
Shelli Nauman
And you don’t even think about that kind of stuff.
How we can enjoy microbes and recognize them in our daily lives
Justine Dees
Yeah. But yeah. Anyways, it’s so interesting. So, what have you learned overall, from your different jobs, about microbes in our daily lives?
Shelli Nauman
So I’ve always been very aware because I’m extremely passionate — as are you I know, and I love that — about microorganisms in general. So on the daily, I am constantly, since my background is mostly or my interest is mostly microbial ecology, I am constantly thinking about the planet, and our environment, and how these relationships interact with one another. Everything from a tree growing to a leaf budding to even us digesting our food. So I guess in my head every day, there’s just this constant barrage of things that I think about and wonder about, and maybe wonder how one is affecting the other.
I take daily walks. So that’s kind of my little exercise, and I love looking for microorganisms that you can see, of course, out in the environment. So if I’m walking past a stream or across a creek, I will actually look for signs of microorganisms, whether it be lichen and moss growing on some of the rocks that are nearby or iron-oxidizing bacteria that you can usually see in little pools or films on top of the water. If you see a rusty color, and it looks, for lack of a better word, it just looks like this pile of goop. And I enjoy looking for that on the daily. And I take pictures of those.
Cool contamination
Also as an undergrad, one of the things that you were talking about in the manufacturing environment about how if you didn’t see anything, you were kind of let down. Making media every day — I had to do that. That was one of my responsibilities. But the other side to that is making sure that there weren’t any contaminants in media that had been made previously. And some of the most crazy, I would have never imagined that a fungal or bacterial contaminant would grow the way it did on some of the media.
Justine Dees
Can you describe some of them?
Shelli Nauman
Yes. So there are two that stick out in my mind pretty heavily. One was this bright pink, and I mean hot pink fungi that had contaminated some chocolate blood agar plates. And it was just magical to me to see something with my naked eye that I knew was a microorganism that I’d never seen before. I’d never seen a pink fungi before.
Justine Dees
How were you able to tell that it was a fungus?
Shelli Nauman
Well, I was told it was a fungus. I never actually identified that. But my professor at the time did.
Justine Dees
Which is normal. You don’t always identify them in those types of jobs.
Shelli Nauman
Yes. And there are so many that look so much alike that the only way to say “okay, hey, this is definitely Pseudomonas” or this is definitely any microorganism is through PCR or genetics because they just look so much alike. In the naked eye sense. Another one that just blows my mind. It was I believe it was a blood agar plate. It was a fungal contaminant that looks like I don’t know what they’re called. But back in medieval times that weapon that had the spiked ball on the end of it.
Justine Dees
Oh, yeah.
Shelli Nauman
That’s exactly what it looks like, protruding up from this plate. And there were several there are several of them. But they had these spikes. And it just blew my mind. I was like, wow, that’s, that’s what that looks like when you allow it to grow to something that I can see. And I’ve just I’ve always been fascinated by that. Why they grow the way they do. And how, as well.
Justine Dees
Yeah, I love that. I love that you gave a couple of examples of things that you see that anyone can see. And then of course, examples of weird stuff you’ve seen in your jobs.
At-home microbiology activity: outdoor microbe hunt
Shelli Nauman
Oh, yeah. And, and yeah, once you start looking for microorganisms in your environment and around you, you can’t stop looking. You know, once you’ve known that it’s there. It’s kind of like, if there are any mushroom lovers out there, or mushroom hunters, they know exactly what I mean by this. Because once you start looking for it, you start seeing it everywhere. Yeah, and even in just the most uncommon places, you know, on the sidewalk in the crack, you know, next time you’re looking and you see some lichen there, you’re gonna start seeing it everywhere. And it opens up that world. And they just become commonplace to you. And so that gives me that little bit of peace or joy, I guess on a daily basis, by searching for that, in my environment.
Justine Dees
I love that it’s like you start to have this new lens that you look through. And even though not all of them are visible — they don’t always reveal themselves — you start to get to know where you could possibly see them or where they could be interacting. And then, of course, the ones that do visibly present themselves, like lichens, and it’s like you’ve got sunglasses or goggles on and you’re all of a sudden wearing microbiology goggles. It’s this new world. And I think it enhances life a little bit to always notice those things when you’re hiking and stuff. I love that. So I was going to ask you for an activity that everyone can do to experience the microbial world in a hands-on way. So do you want to share about how everybody can do that?
Shelli Nauman
Absolutely. So if you are a person that likes to get outside, and since the weather is hopefully changing, at least here it is and Kansas, so it’s getting a little warmer. If you go outside and you’re near a body of water or you’re near some trees, start picking up rocks or pieces of wood and looking underneath it. You can see fungal communities and bacterial processes and lichens and moss out in your daily environment every day. So usually on the ground or under pieces of wood, attached to rocks, etc. you’re going to find what looks like spider webbing. That is actually mycelium from the soil that is growing up and out. That connects all of plant life on the planet.
Justine Dees
So, explain what mycelium is.
Shelli Nauman
Mycelium is this network of fibers or threads, if you will, that connects all trees, all blades of grass, all plants, anything that adheres or grows in soil. So I’ve heard it mentioned that it is called the wood wide web, which I love that name. I’ve heard several mycologists and microbiologists use that term. And it’s very fitting because, for example, mycelium that is underground talks or is the communication tool between trees. So a mother tree to her saplings that are growing around her and under her canopy. Let’s say there’s some type of insect or even fungal threat. The mycelium is the way that she connects and talks to neighboring trees, by signaling through that mycelium to them to let them know that there’s a threat. And I think that is absolutely amazing. And it reiterates to me personally, that everything is connected, the whole planet. And you know how we treat one thing really is detrimental to that entire web.
And it makes me grateful that we have all this beauty around us and underneath us every day that we can see and not see.
Justine Dees
I do want to mention that Shelli wrote a blog post a while back that was an introduction to fungi. And she did explain some of that stuff. It’s a really excellent way to learn some of the basics about fungi. So if you want to go back, I will link to that in the show notes. And you can go and check out some of the writing that she’s done.
So I think that’s a great activity. And I think that can be really fun for people. And hey, if anyone wants to tag Shelli, you can do that on Instagram.
Shelli Nauman
I welcome any form of communication. I do have an Instagram page. And it’s @microshelli. And you can tag me in any of your photos. I’ll talk to anyone about microorganisms at any time. So I’m open to that.
Links & Resources
This post contains affiliate links — see my disclosure policy.
- American Society for Microbiology
- Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake (book)
- Fantastic Fungi directed by Louie Schwartzberg (documentary)
- Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets (book)
- An Introduction to Fungi: the Unnoticed Heroes of the Planet (Shelli’s guest post on Joyful Microbe)
- A Field Guide to Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer (book)
- Previous blog posts to help you with your outdoor microbe hunt:
Connect with Shelli Nauman
Shelli Nauman is a microbiologist currently working at a hospital as an Infection Preventionist in Lawrence, Kansas.
Connect with Shelli Nauman: Instagram and LinkedIn
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11 Audiobooks About Microbes
