IDEXX has announced that independent consultant, Colin Fricker will present at the upcoming Pharmaceutical Microbiology Conference, which takes place on 20-21 January, at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, London, UK
Fricker’s presentation is entitled ‘VBNC – How Culturable is Culturable? Detection, Non-Detection and all Points In-Between’ and will discuss and evaluate current methods used in the detection of microbial contamination in water, and how suitable each is for detection of viable but non-culturable (VBNC) cells within the pharmaceutical industry.
In addition Fricker, who is a professor of environmental studies at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, will examine the challenges that VBNC cells present to those who have to monitor circulating water systems.
The discussion will include evaluation of different markers that are used to measure viability, the difficulties that arise in interpretation of results, and an overview of current methodologies for bug detection.
These will include membrane filtration and pour plates, liquid enrichment methods, flow cytometry and also molecular options.
To register for the conference, click here.