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I work in a diagnostic microbiology laboratory.  Basically this means I work for the NHS, trying to find out what infection a patient has.

The department I work in receives a sample.  I then inoculate it on to agar or in to broth, containing nutrients to help the bacteria grow.  Once it has grown, we can identify it and then do more tests to determine the most appropriate antibiotic to treat the patient with.

We also examine blood for antibodies against viruses, faeces for worms and samples for fungi.

My typical day would start at 9am.  As I arrive I would take the agar plates from the previous day out of the incubators.  I would look at each plate and describe the growth, recording this on to the computer system.  If I felt that the growth was significant, I would pass it on for further investigation.  I would narrow down what type of bacteria it is, based on how it looks and smells, and what it needs to grow.  Then, I would perform appropriate tests.  This could include biochemical reaction tests or sugar fermentation tests.  I might also need to look at it under the microscope.  I would also set up a sensitivity at this point, in order to see how different antibiotics affect the growth of the organism.

Once this work is finished, it’s time for lunch.  Then, I would be assigned to a particular type of specimen, for example wounds.  I would spend the afternoon inoculating these on to agar plates.