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Scientist captivated by microbial cultures
Microbiology is set to play a crucial role in disease surveillance and bio-cleanup following recent flood events across Queensland.
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Microbiology at the University of the Sunshine Coast Dr Ipek Kurtböke said the intense scientific work required in the weeks ahead also would highlight the importance of maintaining reference culture collections.
Dr Kurtböke was recently elected Vice-President of the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC), an organisation concerned with the international collection, authentication, maintenance and distribution of cultures of microorganisms and cultured cells.
The USC academic has been paying close attention to the microorganisms in the thick white foam that covered great stretches of Sunshine Coast beaches this week.
“These foam-associated microorganisms are among large numbers of microorganisms in the microbial library that I’ve created at USC which is now part of the Australian Microbial Resources Research Network,” she said.
“Creation of reference culture collections and their long-term survival is critical for the definition of new microbial species and their comparison with already existing counterparts located in reference collections.
“The impact of global climate change and increasing pollution can also be monitored using microorganisms as indicators, including the ones currently on the rise in numbers on our shorelines.
“The study of microorganisms is also important for the design of environmentally friendly bio-cleanup and biorestoration technologies ranging from oil spills to the health of sand dune plants.”
Dr Kurtböke is the only Australian scientist on the 14-member executive board of the WFCC, which was originally established by Professor Victor Skerman in Queensland in the 1960s. Other members are from as far afield as Belgium, France, Germany, Russia, Kenya, China, Japan, Brazil and the United States.
“WFCC's aim is to promote and support the establishment of culture collections and related services, to provide liaison, and to set up an information network between the collections and their users,” she said.
Dr Kurtböke said USC would benefit from her involvement in the WFCC, which also maintains the World Data Centre for Microorganisms, a database that is useful for all microbiological activity.
“We have all the details for reference collections for teaching and research, and we will have links and references to information about biosafety, biosecurity, postal and quarantine requirements for microorganisms,” she said.
“These are very important for the undergraduate and post-graduate training of the Coast`s future microbiologists.”
— Terry Walsh