Accuracy in analytical microbiology

[Nkb]

Hello everyone.

I'm studying to become a laboratory analyst and I've recently began my studies in microbiology.
My studies began with chemistry and now that the focus in my studies has shifted to microbiology for a bit, I see a sudden drop in required accuracy in results of our analysis. I'm not sure if it's because of the easy-going attitude of some of my teachers or something else.

Is microbiological or biochemical analytics "less accurate" in general?
As in does it involve so many other variables in the calculations of macromolecule concentrations or in growth of bacterial colonies and such so all results are more or less suggestive in analysis and can't be taken as an "absolute truth"?
I know that most of the proteins and nucleotides shatter quite easily if exposed to mechanical damage and/or slightly higher temperatures but most of the time it requires you to be quite careless to actually screw up.


Apologies for any spelling mistakes, english isn't my native language :)

 

[bobze]

Hello everyone.

I'm studying to become a laboratory analyst and I've recently began my studies in microbiology.
My studies began with chemistry and now that the focus in my studies has shifted to microbiology for a bit, I see a sudden drop in required accuracy in results of our analysis. I'm not sure if it's because of the easy-going attitude of some of my teachers or something else.

Is microbiological or biochemical analytics "less accurate" in general?
As in does it involve so many other variables in the calculations of macromolecule concentrations or in growth of bacterial colonies and such so all results are more or less suggestive in analysis and can't be taken as an "absolute truth"?
I know that most of the proteins and nucleotides shatter quite easily if exposed to mechanical damage and/or slightly higher temperatures but most of the time it requires you to be quite careless to actually screw up.


Apologies for any spelling mistakes, english isn't my native language :)

The main purpose of analytical micro, or rather clinical/medical microbiology is organism identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. In general, this does not require the degree of precession as say, measuring blood lipid levels or a complete metabolic panel.

Most tests in commercial and hospital micro labs are rapid tests that rely on the high specificity of base pairing (like rapid strep tests for example) or traditional ways of growth and identification (via biochemical tests, either through card chambers as offered on machines like a Vitek or even more traditionally on agar plates).