Freelance science communication and education
Microbiology
Bacteria
Bacteria are one type of micro-organisms. These are prokaryotes and, thus, quite different in cellular structure from human or animal cells. Bacteria are very small, mostly a couple of micrometers in diameter (a µm or micrometer is one thousandth of a millimeter). Bacteria occur a lot in nature, even in and on our bodies. They can have beneficial effects (for instance probiotics), yet can also make us ill.
Fungi
Fungal cells are a little bit bigger than bacterial cells, about five to ten micrometer. An important difference between bacteria and fungi, is the cellular structure. In fact, fungal cells resemble human cells a lot more compared to bacterial cells. Both fungi and humans are eukaryotes, while bacteria are not. This plays an important role in drug development. Similar to bacteria, fungi can be both beneficial and harmful.
Virusses
It can be debated whether virusses are organisms at all. Are they even alive? They depend fully on other organisms to proliferate. Many types of virusses exist. We typically asoociate virusses with disease. Bacteriophages, however, are also virusses, which can help us treat a bacterial infection.