|
 | You're receiving this email because of your past communications with Hardy Diagnostics. Please confirm your continued interest in receiving emails and the monthly newsletter from Hardy Diagnostics. You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our emails. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
a culture of service...
June, 2016
© 2016, Hardy Diagnostics,
all rights reserved
|
New Culture Media Catalog
|
Hardy is proud to annouce its new catalog of all culture media offerings.
This 85 page booklet contains descriptions of the 2,700 products that Hardy manufactures for the microbiologist.
Please have an account rep contact me about a price quote.
* * *
|
The GramPRO 80
Gram Stains...
Consistent
and Fast
Hardy's GramPRO 80 will rapidly stain your smears and get it right every time! Our patented technology judges the thickness of the smear and adjusts the decolorization step to perfection. Not only that, there are no messy clean-up or maintenance procedures. This new instrument allows up to 80 slides to be loaded for fully automatic processing within one hour! Not only that, but STAT slides can be inserted that will "go to the front of the line!"
Find out more about all the QuickSlide instruments.
View the brochure on all of Hardy's automated stainers
Please contact me to discuss automated slide stainers.
|
Spending too much time with stool cultures?
|
Hardy's unique chromogenic plate will readily differentiate Proteus from Salmonella and Shigella. Get ready for the onslaught of summer stool cultures and stop wasting time working up Proteus!
Send me samples so I can see for myself.
* * *
|
Hardy offers a complete line of disposable nichrome and platinum loops. Whatever you prefer...Hardy has it!
See the complete loop catalog.
Request a sample of SpeedStreaks disposable loops.
* * *
|
|
Phraseology
"A SHOT OF WHISKEY"
In the old west, a .45 cartridge for a six-shooter pistol cost 12 cents; so did a glass of whiskey.
If a cowhand was low on cash, he would often give the bartender a cartridge in exchange for a drink. This became known as a "shot" of whiskey.
* * *
|
|
Brainteasers
Strength training for the mind.
|
|
For better specimen collection..
TransPRO
 Hardy's TransPRO Swab utilizes the new HydraFlock technology for better absorption of the specimen and better elution and release.
The patented HydraFlock features microfibers of unequal length to produce increased surface area to pick up more of the specimen and quickly release it into the transport media or broth.
Hardy offers the HydraFlock in Amies Transport media (standard tip, urethral, or nasopharyngeal) or with CVM for Chlamydia, Viruses, and Mycoplasma.
Learn more...
Request a sample.
|
"Go confidently
in the direction of
your dreams!
Live the life you imagined."
Henry David Thoreau
|
All formats available...
Control
Organisms
Hardy offers a complete selection of microorganisms for your QC program. These MBL organisms are licensed derivatives from ATCC. They are available in the swab or pellet format; qualitative or quantitative. Order from Hardy for immediate service and delivery.
View the entire microorganism catalog online.
|
|
Think about it...
* What would a chair look like if your knees bent the other way?
* If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to see it, do the other trees make fun of it?
* Why is a carrot more orange than an orange?
* When two airplanes almost collide, why do they call it a near miss? It sounds like a near hit to me!
* Do fish get cramps after eating?
* * * |
|
Wisdom to Ponder...
Muhammad Ali
1942 ~ 2016
American heavyweight Olympic
and professional boxer
"If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you." "I know where I'm going, and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want." "It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe." "He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life."
"Silence is golden when you can't think of a good answer."
"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth."
"I'm the greatest thing that ever lived! I'm the king of the world! I'm a bad man. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived." "It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am." "At home, I am a nice guy: but I don't want the world to know. Humble people, I've found, don't get very far."
"It's just a job. Grass grows; birds fly; waves pound the sand. I beat people up."
* * *
|
Want to receive the MicroBytes
Newsletter at home?
Want to view past issues
of MicroBytes?
|
|
Did you know?
Hardy Diagnostics... - Is celebrating its 36th year of serving microbiologists.
- Manufactures from three ISO certified factories; one in California, Ohio, and Texas.
- Is ISO 13485 certified for the manufacture of medical devices to give you confidence in our products.
- Services over 10,000 labs and maintains a worldwide network of over 65 distributors.
|
|
QUICK LINKS...
|
As Hardy Diagnostics
enters its 36th year of serving microbiologists in the laboratory, I would like to thank each of our customers for their support and loyalty. It truly has been a pleasure to serve you!
If there is any way that we can improve or expand upon our service, would you please let me know?
Jay Hardy, CLS, SM(NRCM)
President
HARDY DIAGNOSTICS
|
Obstacles are the things you see when you take your eyes off your goal...
|
|
|
|
|
|
The next big thing...
Pocket Sized Microscopes
Many of us don't care how microscopes work, as long as they let us see the bacteria on our slide. We have specimens to process, bacteria to identify, and diseases to diagnose; we do not have time to think about how much space our microscopes take up.
This is perfectly acceptable if your lab has enough money to buy and counter space to house a compound microscope. But for those researchers out in the field, bringing a microscope on your hike up a river is just not practical. What happens to your water samples on the hike back to the lab? Some organisms will simply not grow on currently available culture media. If we cannot grow them in the lab and we can
not visualize them in the field, is their presence hidden forever? What if we could make those microscopes smaller, more compact, and as easy to carry as a smart phone? This would allow us to visualize bioburden at the point of origin as easily as snapping a phot
o!
Dr. Capasso from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences believes this could be possible. His lab has discovered a way to create extremely thin (think 60nm) lenses with focusing power better than curved optical lenses. They're called metasurfaces. A metasurface is two thin surfaces separated by a sub-wavelength distance and covered with nanostructures arranged in such a way that allows you to change the refraction index locally on a nano-scale. This essentially two-dimensional surface allows for a shorter focal length and corrects for some aberrations inherent with traditional curved glass lenses.
Metallic nanopillars are imbedded in epoxy, then sliced to produce ultra thin light sensing devices.
A microtome is used to section the array of metallic nanostructures, which are then joined with optical fibers.
Dr. Capasso believes this could be the future for optical lenses. The limiting factor for the size of any camera is the distance required between the optical lenses. The spherical surface of lenses introduces aberrations in light waves that require other lenses in sequence to undo those aberrations. With the ability of metamaterials to reduce those aberrations and the focal length, cameras could get much, much smaller. The nanostructures of the metasurface can be designed and structured locally, on the nanoscale, and could potentially be formed in such a way to be as powerful as a compound microscope. Just think; our kids and grandkids could be walking around with microscopes in their pockets.
The metasurface can also be applied to any surface -even malleable ones. Could we have security cameras on stickers? Dr. Capasso acknowledges that they have only demonstrated the proof of principle and are a long way from understanding the exact design necessary for all of these feats. He states that they are inefficient and are not broadband (they can only focus one wavelength at a time). However, this is one discovery that makes James Bond technology seem within reach.
by Rianna Malherbe
Tech Support Specialist at Hardy Diagnostics
References:
* * *
|
anaeroGRO
Could you be missing important anaerobes? Hardy offers pre-reduced culture media in oxygen impermeable bags that are gassed with nitrogen and contain an oxygen scavenger and desiccant.
Learn more about anaeroGRO and the many choices of set-up packs.
Watch a short video explaining the features and benefits of anaeroGRO.
See our complete catalog of supplies for anaerobes.
Try a sample pack of anaeroGRO and see how to get better growth of anaerobes.
Anaerobic tubes with Hungate stoppers are available too! |
|
Online Ordering Made Easy!
Watch a short video to learn how easy it is to order from Hardy on-line!
Pick. Click. You're Done!
* * *
|
Could Alzheimer's Disease be a Response to Infection?
Recent research suggests that Alzheimer's could be due to amyloid plaque forming around an infectious agent.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disease that affects more than three million people each year. There are limited treatment options and no cure. While it generally affects those over the age of 60, it has been diagnosed in people as young as 27. Early signs are disruptive memory loss, difficulty planning or problem solving, confusion about the passage of time, trouble understanding spatial relations, problems with words, both written and spoken, and changes in mood and personality. These brain functions are the result of nerve cell damage, thought to be caused by the formation of tau proteins. These "tangles" or "plaques" are made up of amyloid beta proteins and serve no real purpose.
Salmonella trapped in beta-amyloid plaques produced by mice.
A new theory, suggested by Dr. Robert Moir of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, stems from the observation that these amyloid proteins are very similar to immune system proteins, meant to trap and destroy harmful microorganisms. Moir and his colleague Dr. Rudolph Tanzi designed experiments to determine if these amyloid plaques could serve a similar function in the brain. To test their theory, they injected mice with Salmonella. They noticed that amyloid plaques began to form around the bacteria in the brain (see photo above). In the mice that did not form the plaques, the infectious disease progressed more rapidly. This study suggests that early infection may contribute to development of Alzheimer's disease later in life.
This finding may help explain why some people with Alzheimer's have exhibited higher levels of herpes antibodies, a sign of previous infection, than others who didn't have Alzheimer's.
Infectious agents as well as previous head trauma may bring on inflammation leading to the amyloid plaques as a a response. For example, some population-based studies of Alzheimer's patients suggested that people who took non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (so-called NSAIDs like aspirin or ibuprofen) for long periods have a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's.
The truly frightening thing is that this infection could be symptomless, leading many to be at risk and not be aware of it. This is compounded in anyone who also has the ApoE4 gene, which causes them to be less effective at breaking down beta amyloid.
While the findings of this study are a little frightening, it has filled in several gaps in our knowledge about Alzheimer's. Knowing another factor in the development of the disease and being able to manipulate it is a big jump towards eventually preventing it. The Alzheimer's Association Research Center reports a drug currently in research that may lower the level of beta amyloid in the brain.
Another drug is in phase 3 clinical trials to inhibit the ability of beta secretase enzyme to create beta amyloid. Research is also underway to develop a drug to prevent the tau protein from collapsing and twisting, causing the tangleswhich destroy the neuron.
As microbiologists, we know that infections can lead to unexpected manifestations in the human body; for instance, Strep throat can lead to rheumatic heart disease and glomerulonephritis, Campylobacter infections can lead to Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and Helicobacter pylori infections can be the cause of gastric ulcers. Could the next discovery of infectious disease be related to Alzheimer's?
While silent infections in early life leading to Alzheimer's later in life sounds frightening, this is likely not the only factor in the development of this disease. There are risk factors within our control, such as blood pressure, and that silver bullet of health, exercise.
by Kate Massey
References:
|
Environmental Monitoring...
Contact Plates
Hardy offers a complete line of
contact plates for your surface monitoring.
The Tap-Tight feature assures that
the lids will stay securely in place!
|
The Dirty Dryer?
According to a recent study initiated by CBS 2, hot air dryers were found to be a source of possible problematic bacterial contamination.
Using a protocol from Loyola University Medical Center microbiology laboratory,
12 Dyson Airblade hand dryers were swabbed and cultured.
They found that 10 of the 12 were grossly contaminated and included such fecal organisms as Klebiella oxytoca and Enterobacter cloacae.
The lab's director, Dr. Paul Schreckenberger, said, "These hand dryers are not sanitized. They are not clean, and they have the potential of putting bacteria back on your hands after we've dried them."
While some organizations are getting rid of their hand dryers, others are instituting a daily sanitizing routine of the dryers.
"If they are not cleaned regularly, you see the results; you are going to have contaminated dryers," Schreckenberger says.
|
|
Microbiology
is the only science
where Multiplication and Division
mean the same thing!
|
Warning:
PUN ZONE
AHEAD
* I saw a big sale on paddles at the boat store today. It was quite an oar deal!
* Jill broke her finger today, but on the other hand, she was completely fine. * People are choosing cremation over traditional burial. It shows that they are finally thinking out of the box. * My new theory on inertia doesn't seem to be gaining much momentum. * If you are going deaf, is it ear replaceable?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
