Track 1: Microbiology

The field is concerned with the structure, function, and classification of such organisms and with ways of both exploiting and controlling their activities. Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, or microbes, a diverse group of generally minute simple life-forms that include bacteria, archaea, algae, fungi, protozoa, and viruses.

Track 2: Environmental Microbiology

Environmental microbiology is concerned with the study of microorganisms in the soil, water, and air and their application in bioremediation to reduce environmental pollution through the biological degradation of pollutants into non-toxic or less toxic substances.

Track 3: Protozoology

Protozoology is the study of protozoans. Protozoans are common, and they are of particular interest to man because they cause such diseases as malaria, amoebic dysentery, and African trypanosomiasis sleeping sickness.

Life Cycle of Protozoology

Protozoan can multiply by the asexual method of reproduction for a long time. They may switch on to the sexual method or undergoes a cystic change to their host. In parasitic protozoa, both asexual and sexual reproductions occur in a different host. This process is known as alterna­tion of generation.

Track 4: Food Microbiology

Food microbiology is the scientific study of microorganisms, both in food and used for the production of food. This includes microorganisms that contaminate food, as well as those used in its production. This term is not restricted to pathogenic organisms: the presence of various non-pathogenic bacteria and fungi in cheeses and wines. Food Microbiologists study the interactions between food, microorganisms, and their environment to ensure food safety, quality, and value.

Track 5: Agricultural Microbiology

Agricultural microbiology is a branch of science that studies different microorganisms that are associated with plants, soil fertility, and even animal diseases. t aims to address problems in agricultural practices usually caused by a lack of biodiversity in microbial communities. An understanding of microbial strains relevant to agricultural applications is useful in the enhancement of factors such as soil nutrients, plant-pathogen resistance, crop robustness, fertilization uptake efficiency, and more.

Track 6: Antimicrobial Resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is not a recent phenomenon, but it is a critical health issue today. When microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi changed in some way and become have resistant to the medical drug that is used to treat their infections and change it to be ineffective. Antimicrobial resistance is a general term for many types of resistance such as antiviral, antibacterial, antiparasitic, and antifungal drugs.  

Some of the most common bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics are:

• Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)
• Pneumonia
• Tuberculosis
• Gonorrhea
• Bloodstream infections
• Escherichia coli

Track 7: Microorganisms in Waste Management

Microorganisms play important roles in the maintenance of many natural and man-made phenomena in the environment. One of such areas that microorganisms are adopted is in waste management. The proper disposal of the voluminous waste that humans generate in their daily activities is a great challenge that government and environmental agencies are continuously seeking better ways of addressing. An important way of successfully combating this menace is through the use of microorganisms.

Track 8: Dairy Microbiology

The Dairy Microbiology section contains information relating to microbial concerns in milk. Dairy is virtually sterile when it is synthesized in a healthy cow's udder mammary gland. Cows, like humans, are natural reservoirs of bacteria. Many of these bacteria are not harmful to humans, but some may be harmful to humans even though the cows are not affected and appear healthy. The area of dairy microbiology is large and diverse. The bacteria present in dairy products may cause disease or spoilage. Some bacteria may be specifically added to milk for fermentation to produce products like yogurt and cheese.

Track 9: Pathogenicity & Virulence

Pathogenicity refers to the ability of an organism to cause disease. This ability represents a genetic component of the pathogen and the overt damage done to the host is a property of the host-pathogen interactions. Virulence, a term often used interchangeably with pathogenicity, refers to the degree of pathology caused by the organism.  Virulence is defined as the relative ability of a microorganism to overcome host defenses or the degree of pathogenicity within a group or species. The extent of the virulence is usually correlated with the ability of the pathogen to multiply within the host and may be affected by other factors. In summary, an organism species or strain is defined as being pathogenic (or not), and depending upon conditions, may exhibit different levels of virulence.

Track 10: Geomicrobiology

Geomicrobiology is a study of the role that microbes have played in the geologic past from the time of their first appearance on the planet Earth about 4 eons ago to the present, and the role they are playing today and are likely to play in the future in some of the processes that are of fundamental importance to geology.

Track 11: Microbial Ecology

Microbial Ecology is the study of microbes in the environment and their interactions with each other. Microbes are the tiniest creatures on Earth yet despite their small size, they have a huge impact on us and on our environment. It is estimated that we know fewer than 1% of the microbial species on Earth.

Track 12: Bacterial Synthetic Biology

Bacterial synthetic biology is a scientific discipline that deals with the synthesis of part, or the whole, of bacteria that do not exist in nature in this form. It uses engineering and molecular biology tools. The Bacterial Synthetic Biology group works broadly within microbiology, as it applies to industrial biotechnology, food production, and human health.

Track 13: Microbiomes

Microbiomes are a community of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses that inhabit a particular environment and especially the collection of microorganisms living in or on the human body. The microbiome consists of microbes that are both helpful and potentially harmful.

Track 14: Microbial Physiology

Microbial physiology can reasonably be defined as structure-function relationships in microorganisms, especially how microbes respond to their environment. The proteinaceous components of the OM play an important role in microbial physiology. They are located at the interface of the bacterial cell and the extracellular milieu and thus mediate interactions between the bacterial cell and its environment.

Track 15: Clinical Infections

A clinical infection means one that presents with some clinical symptoms in simpler terms, it’s an infection where the patient has some complaints like fever, cough, etc. This is in contrast with the other term, 'subclinical' infection where the patient is infected with organisms but doesn't have any symptoms yet.

Track 16: Marine Microbiology

Marine microbiology studies many aspects of microbial communities such as the marine pelagic food web, harmful algal blooms, geomicrobiology and processes in the seafloor and in oil reservoirs, arctic microbiology, and the role of microorganisms in climate change.

Track 17: Soil microbiology

Soil microbiology is the investigation of microorganisms in the dirt, their capacities, and what they mean for soil properties. Soil microorganisms can be named microbes, actinomycetes, parasites, green growth, and protozoa. It is accepted that somewhere in the range of two and four billion years prior, the main old microbes and microorganisms happened on Earth's seas. These microbes could fix nitrogen, in time duplicated, and subsequently, delivered oxygen into the environment. This prompted further developed microorganisms, which are significant in light of the fact that they influence soil construction and fruitfulness.

The global clinical microbiology market size is projected to reach USD 5.3 billion by 2025 from USD 3.9 billion in 2021, at a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period. The global microbiological testing/clinical microbiology market offers significant growth potential for prominent as well as emerging product manufacturers. Technological advancements, rising incidence of infectious diseases and growing outbreak of epidemics (such as COVID-19), and increased funding and public-private investments are some of the key factors driving the growth of the microbiological testing/clinical microbiology market.

COVID-19 Impact on the global clinical microbiology market:

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the clinical microbiology market. The market is facing challenges in the manufacturing and supply chain, such as delivering products to end-users in a timely manner as well as attending to an uneven demand for the products and services in the sector. In addition, a dearth of skilled lab professionals to conduct/study diagnostic tests, limited operations in most of the industries, inadequate funding for research and academic institutes, temporary closure of major academic institutes, disrupted supply chain, and challenges in providing essential/post-sales services due to lockdowns have led to the reduced supply of clinical microbiology products to end-users. Research institutes are one of the major end-users of clinical microbiology products. As the pandemic resulted in the temporary closure of several research institutes across the globe, this end-user segment has been affected drastically over the last few months.