Entries by pierre

Non-sterile Pharma: How to perform a Growth Promotion test on culture media?

To understand how culture media GPTs (Growth Promotion Tests) are conducted in non-sterile pharma, we contacted a SuperMicrobiologist; Alexandra Foucher. Alexandra has been a microbiology supervisor for over 20 years in the pharma industry, having conducted thousands of growth promotion tests… actually, it’s TNTC (Too Numerous To Count)! So, we interviewed her to learn her… […]

Food Microbiology: How to limit cross-contamination caused by QC strains?

ISO 11133 and ISO 7218 standards require food microbiology laboratories to use QC (Quality Control) strains. This poses problems for the microbiology laboratory, notably due to the risk of cross-contamination. Following a call to the SuperMicrobiologists community to address this topic, Cécile Vadier immediately raised her… inoculation loop. We therefore went to interview her. Cécile […]

Pharma Growth Promotion Tests: How to choose your calibrated QC strains?

Most pharmaceutical QC microbiology laboratories routinely use QC (Quality Control) strains to verify that their culture media are capable of growing microorganisms from potential contamination. We call it a GPT, a Growth Promotion Test (still performed by human microbiologists and not an AI). To simplify their life, more and more labs are opting for ready-to-use […]

Food Microbiology: How to choose microbiological quality control strains?

In the last few years, food microbiology laboratories have been asked to perform more and more quality control tests to verify the performances of the methods and agents they use. To perform these QC (Quality Control) tests, food laboratories need microbial reference materials. But where can these strains be found? A few years ago, the […]

The worldwide map of microbiology labs

This map is the fruit of the collaborative work of the SuperMicrobiologists. To be able to see it, we ask you to participate by answering this short questionnaire. Your answers will enable us to complete the map.

Microbiology: What is reverse pipetting?

In microbiology labs, air-cushion pipettes are the most commonly used. With this type of pipette, there are two pipetting techniques: Although reverse pipetting has many advantages, it’s still not widely known. In this article, we will (try to) explain what the reverse pipetting method is all about. What is forward pipetting? In microbiology labs, when […]