Cell & Microbiology Services

Emery Pharma Can Help

with Your Microbiology and Cell Biology Needs

Emery Pharma offers a wide range of microbiology and cell biology services in our state-of-the-art laboratory with hundreds of bacterial strains including multidrug-resistant clinical isolates, ESKAPE pathogens, and multiple fungal strains available in our inventory for immediate testing. Our laboratory at Emery Pharma regularly performs microbiological testing and our Ph.D. scientists provide both recommendations for method set up, such as suggesting microorganisms to test, and insightful and timely analysis of results.

Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) is a type of antimicrobial susceptibility assay. It is used to determine the lowest concentration of antimicrobial agent needed to inhibit visible growth of microorganisms in broth or agar. The MBC and MFC Assay is used to determine the lowest concentration of antimicrobial agents that results in microbial death. 

Emery Pharma offers suspension-based antiviral assays using the betacoronavirus OC43 (ATCC VR-1558). Our suspension-based antiviral assays against OC43 can be tailored to either a direct inactivation of the virus or a cell protective assay.

To test a compound’s ability to penetrate bacterial biofilm, we provide the Minimum Biofilm Eradication Concentration (MBEC) assay as a service to our clients. The assay is used to determine the concentration of an antimicrobial agent that penetrates and eradicates bacterial biofilms. We offer the peg lid microplate-based MBEC assay, which has the advantage of high biofilm consistency and the ability to test a range of concentrations in one assay. In addition to the MBEC assay, we have custom antibiofilm protocol development to find the solution that best fits the client’s needs.

The Time-Kill Kinetics Assay is used to assess the rate of killing of microorganism by an antimicrobial agent, which is done by measuring the number of viable microorganisms left at various time points after exposure to an antimicrobial agent. 

Used to characterize the ability of a microorganism to develop resistance to an antimicrobial agent, we can conduct both single and multi-step methods. Single-step assays will determine the frequency of mutation against an antimicrobial agent, as well as multi-step serial passage of microbes in a serial passage model.

Cytotoxicity Testing

Cytotoxicity testing is used to determine the toxicity of a test compound on mammalian cells and are an important part in determining whether a compound may be a viable drug candidate. We have both quantitative and qualitative assays, such as MTT and MEM elution assays.

Antimicrobial Synergy Study

Antimicrobial synergy testing by checkerboard assay is used to determine the effect on potency of a combination of antibiotics in comparison to their individual antimicrobial activities. Synergy studies can be further assessed by time-kill kinetic analysis to determine the rate of killing with the combinations.

Post-Antibiotic Effect Assay

Emery Pharma offers the post-antibiotic effect assay to determine the capacity of an antimicrobial drug to inhibit the growth of bacteria even after removal of the drug from the culture.