Scientific responsible of the collection: Cristina Costa, Narcisa Mandras
Email: cristina.costa@unito.it, narcisa.mandras@unito.it

MiBAT collection belongs to the Laboratory of bacteriology and mycology of the Department of Public Health and Paediatrics. It represents an important resource for research and for sharing knowledge with other universities, in Italy and abroad. Microorganisms, mainly isolated from human clinical samples (skin, urine, blood, BAL etc.) coming from community or hospitalized patients, are stored at -80°C in microbank or at 4°C on agar slants. However, environmental samples are present too.

Yeasts and bacteria have been identified via biochemical methods (API, Vitek), while identification of filamentous fungi is based on their macro- and microscopic morphology and molecular characterization.

The research activity of the Laboratory is focused on the study of the interaction between non-specific immunity and antimicrobial agents (antibiotics, antimycotics, essential oils, vegetal extracts) in fungal and bacterial infections. This work implies the evaluation of in vitro efficacy of antimicrobials, and their activity of immune modulation on primary functions of phagocytes in immunocompromised patients, such as phagocytosis, intracellular microbicide activity, cytokines release versus clinical pathogens. Moreover, the following research topics are studied: evaluation of addictive or synergistic effect of essential oils (mint of Pancalieri, tea-tree oil, oregano, red thyme etc.) and antimycotic drugs; efficacy of incorporated versus non-incorporated nanoparticles with antimicrobial drugs in fighting skin infection; comparative analysis of intestinal microbiota in paediatric patients; evaluation of the prevalence of dermatophytosis and related mould in humans and animals; microbiologic evaluation of oral surgery treatments.