Anaerobic Bacteriology Course

2.5-Day Anaerobic Culture and Chamber Laboratory Course

Anaerobe Systems hosts regularly scheduled, hands on, and laboratory-based courses in anaerobic bacteriology and anaerobic chamber operation. Our 2.5 day classes are a mixture of classroom lecture and hands on lab covering a wide range of topics in anaerobic bacteriology. The course is designed to bring people with basic experience in microbiology up to a proficient level in anaerobic specimen collection, growth, isolation, and identification. The course includes both clinical infection and human microbiome topics. Extensive microbiology experience is NOT required, but basic knowledge or experience on how to streak a petri plate is helpful.

Cost:

For a quote, please reach out to sales@biolog.com.  We have options available depending on whether you are about to or have purchased a chamber from Anaerobe Systems, but we accept student regardless of the type of chamber you own and use.  Please note that the course fee includes 3 nights’ hotel accommodations (Tue-Thu nights), local transportation to/from airport, most meals, and all course materials, but does not include airfare.

Upcoming Anaerobic Course Dates

Courses are held Wednesday through Friday, with the course ending at 10:30am on Friday. Attendees flying in from out of state should plan on arriving Tuesday afternoon or evening before the class.

  • June 11 – 13, 2025
  • September 17 – 19, 2025
  • January 28-30, 2026
  • March 18-20, 2026
  • May 20-22, 2026
  • August 5-7, 2026
  • October 7-9, 2026

Who Will Benefit From This Course

This course covers a wide range of topics in anaerobic bacteriology that will be useful to those in clinical diagnostic, microbiome research, veterinary diagnostics, microbiome therapeutics development, and general anaerobic organism research. You do not need to have extensive microbiology or anaerobic experience, and our instructors will guide you through the course activities.

Topics Covered & Course Schedule

Wednesday AM – Lecture: Oxygen toxicity and anaerobiosis, types of anaerobic infections, specimen collection & transport, culture media selection, primary isolation techniques, and preliminary identification techniques. Basic operational concepts for working inside the anaerobic chamber including entering/exiting the chamber, operating the airlock, and incubating samples.

Wednesday PM – Lab: Examine mixed culture samples streaked on various enrichment, selective, and differential culture media. Pick colonies and streak onto secondary plates utilizing spot potency discs for identification. Set up aerotolerance testing and perform basic gram stains.

Thursday AM – Lecture: Considerations when studying the human microbiome including sequencing, metabolomics, importance of metadata, handling samples, and culturing from the microbiome. Theory and principals of operation of anaerobic chambers including gas supply, catalytic oxygen removal, humidity control, incubation, and maintaining anaerobic conditions. Troubleshooting common chamber problems and how to fix them.

Thursday PM – Lab: Simulated workup and identification of unknowns using the Anaerobe Educator web based program. Anaerobic chamber basic/daily maintenance and common problem troubleshooting. Examining plates from previous day and recording results. Perform spot biochemical tests on plates.

Friday AM – Lab/Lecture: Long term anaerobic chamber maintenance including changing sleeves, changing the catalyst, changing cuffs, calibrating the incubator. Laboratory final exam identifying 16 live culture unknowns set up on various culture media plates.

Anaerobic Bacteriology Course

The lecture portion of our 2.5 day class covers topics such as oxygen toxicity, specimen collection & transport, culture media selection, techniques for isolation, and fundamental identification methods. In the lab portion, students work in small groups inside our AS-500, AS-580, or AS-150 anaerobic chamber with live anaerobic organisms. Students start with an anaerobic plate streaked with a mixed sample containing 4 unknown anaerobic and facultative organisms. We guide students through picking colonies, streaking, basic staining, and spot biochemicals & potency discs for identification.

Anaerobic Chamber Training

In addition to the anaerobic bacteriology coursework, students get valuable hands on training using gloveless anaerobic chambers. During the lecture we cover the theory and principals of operation of anaerobic chambers and the various key components of anaerobic chambers. In the lab, students will perform basic troubleshooting and maintenance on the anaerobic chamber. Most of the concepts and content can be applied to any anerobic chamber, and this course would be valuable to anyone working with any model of anaerobic chamber.

Registration

To register for the course, please inquire on available dates and space in the class. Current AS-500 or AS-150 customers will need to reference their chamber serial number or purchase order number for complimentary or half price registration.

Contact:
Sandy Burg – workshop and training coordinator
800-443-3108
customerservice@anaerobesystems.com

Register Online