Question: what does a mircobiologist do?

Danielle Nader answered on 9 Feb 2022:

Microbiologists can do so many different tasks, it depends on your specialty or interest.

Microbiologists that specialize in human infection (like me) study pathogen’s that can infect humans (ex, S.aureus, E. coli, SARS-CoV-2, C. albicans) and how it interacts with human cells. We study the pathways it activates, how the cell responds to infection, and different drugs that target the pathogen. These microbiologists can branch into virology, immunology, mycology (and usually have to incorporate each one into their own work).

Some microbiologists specialize in biotechnology, which usually incorporates microbes like yeast to produce food and alcoholic beverages. Some experts are using it to generate electricity in microbial fuel cells and to produce ethanol for use as biofuel.

Some other branches include studying parasites (like tapeworms that live inside the intestine and feed off the food you eat!), astromicrobiology (looking for microbes that can live in space or on other planets), agricultural or food microbiology (some microbes prefer to live in soil, how does this affect the food we eat)?