Small worlds: an introduction to microbiology

By pretty much any measure of success you care to apply, microbes are the dominant life-form on the planet; they have been around longer than anything else, they are more numerous than anything else, and they will likely be around long after everything else has disappeared. In fact, it is no understatement to say that we are guests in a microbial world. In this course, we'll explore what's out there, with a special focus on understanding better one particularly interesting class of microbes - the bacteria. Recent advances in so-called "culture-independent" approaches have revealed the true breadth of species out there, and it is now apparent that the bacterial gene pool is far larger than we thought even a decade or two ago. In this course, which would be suitable for an interested but non-expert audience, we'll be having a look at how our preconceptions about bacteria are changing as a result of new discoveries. We'll see how bacteria - once considered to be the archetypal "single-celled organisms" - actually have a thriving social life, and how this is tied in with the propensity of some species to cause disease. We'll also be having a look at how antibiotics work, and consider the problem of antimicrobial resistance. Your Course Director is Professor of Microbial Physiology and Metabolism at Cambridge and is unashamedly in love with these fascinating little organisms. He hopes that his enthusiasm for the subject will be.... "infectious"!

This course will be co-taught with Dr Ashraf Zarkan: 
Dr Zarkan (Ash) is a Transition To Independence Fellow (funded by the Rosetrees Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust, and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Cambridge). He has a BSc in Pharmacy, an MSc in Medical Microbiology and a PhD in Biochemistry. Before starting his fellowship, he trained in the labs of Dr Hee-Jeon Hong, Prof Martin Welch and Prof George Salmond (as PhD 2012-2016, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, UK) and Dr David Summers (as PostDoc 2016-2022, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK). His specialisms in the Cambridge Infectious Diseases research team centre on pathogen biology and evolution, and drugs and vaccines. 

In this course, we’ll be looking at what microbes are (with shameless focus on bacteria), where they live, and how to harness their potential as biotechnological powerhouses. We’ll also look at how they cause disease, and what we can do about this. This is a lecture-based course (we hope to return to the lab in the coming years), but your distinctly energetic lecturers will do their best to engage with you as an audience and grease the cogwheels of the mind.  

Specific topics to be covered will include;
(i) The microbial world and its diversity.
(ii) The origins of bacteria.
(iii) Microbial communities.
(iv) Microbial motility and colour.
(v) Microbes and climate change (well, we had to really, didn’t we…
(vi) Antibiotics – are we really heading back to “the dark ages”?
(vii) Malevolent bugs.
(viii) The good guys.
(ix) The human microbiome and its impact on you
(x) What bugs can tell us about life… 

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are:

• To learn about what bacteria are, and how they contribute to our planet;  
• To understand how bacteria cause disease and how to combat this;  
• To learn how the study of bacteria has led directly to the ‘genetic revolution’.

Classes

1. An introduction to the bacterial world  
2. Antibiotics  
3. The social life of microbes and its link with disease  
4. Alternatives to antibiotics  
5. How bacteria have revolutionized our understanding of life 

Typical week: Monday to Friday

For each week of study you select a morning (Am) and an afternoon (Pm) course, each course has five sessions, one each day Monday to Friday. The maximum class size is 25 students. Your weekly courses are complemented by a series of two daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £65 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically within a week of your courses finishing.