ÖGMBT celebrated the International Day of Microorganisms - a good occasion to have the "Microorganism of the Year 2019" chosen in a competition

Together with Open Science, the ÖGMBT called on pupils to choose the microorganism of the year 2019. School classes were asked to explain what distinguishes the microorganism they had chosen and what makes it so special.

There were no limits to the imagination when it came to design - the submission documents could be drawn and designed by hand or worked out electronically. The only important thing was to show what the microorganism of 2019 should be.

All submitted works were exhibited at the 11th ÖGMBT Annual Meeting, the most important congress for life sciences and biotechnology with 300 participants, in mid-September at the International Day of Microorganisms in Salzburg. Scientists reviewed and selected the submissions of the children.

The winner was the work of Jonas, Jakob, Moritz and Florian from class 2b (now 3b) of the Bundesgymnasium St. Johann in Tyrol on the bacterium Escherichia Coli.

School class @ the Medical University of Innsbruck

The prize included an invitation for the whole class to a microbiological practical course and lecture in the new teaching and learning building of the Medical University of Innsbruck. The head of the Institute of Molecular Biology, Hubertus Haas, had put together an exciting, age-appropriate programme and ÖGMBT President and head of the Institute of Cell Biology at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Lukas A. Huber, provided the lunchtime snack.

Before the visit, the students received agar plates and were asked to make "hand swab", "door handle swab" & "mobile phone swab". The view of the overgrown agar plates and the closer look under the microscope obviously surprised the students.

International Microorganism Day

Since 2017 the International Microorganism Day aims to raise awareness among young people and the society in general on the essential role that microorganisms play in our health, environment and quality of life, as well as of their biotechnological potential.

It is celebrated on 17th of September, the day in 1683 when the Dutch Anton van Leeuwenhoek – a merchant with no fortune or university degrees - sent a letter to the Royal Society of London, reporting the first description of a single-celled organism. This unlikely scientist displayed infinite curiosity, being a pacient and tireless worker, gifted with extraordinary power of observation. He built and developed his own microscopes (hundreds of them!), perfecting the lenses of his optical system and thus making it possible to obtain extraordinary amplifications, well ahead of his time, and to observe and describe, for the first time, microorganisms. In this famous letter, an exquisite description was made of the first observation of living bacteria present on the dental plaque, which was accompanied by drawings of the microorganisms and their movements. Finaly reaching Microscopic Life, the foundations of Microbiology were laid.