Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Antimicrobial testing at Emery Pharma
Frequently Asked Questions
• Who is Emery Pharma and how can I contact them for a project?
Emery Pharma offers various services in chemistry, bioanalysis, cell & microbiology and litigation support. You can reach out to them by visiting their website and using the "Contact Us" button to submit a project proposal. An expert from Emery Pharma will then contact you.
• What is a Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) assay?
A Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) is one of the cornerstones of antimicrobial testing. MIC assay determine the lowest concentration of an antimicrobial agent that prevents visible growth of a microorganism in vitro. It's used to assess the effectiveness of antimicrobial compounds.
• What are Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) assays?
Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) assays determine the lowest concentration of an antimicrobial agent required to kill bacteria (bactericidal) or fungi (fungicidal). Killing is defined as a 99.9% reduction in the initial inoculum.
• What methods does Emery Pharma use for antibiotic susceptibility testing?
Emery Pharma uses several methods for antibiotic susceptibility testing, following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. These methods include broth micro- and macro-dilution, disk diffusion, and agar dilution.
• How do I know which method (broth micro- and macro-dilution, disk diffusion, and agar dilution) is the right one for my test material?
The microdilution method is one of the most commonly used MIC methods as it allows for testing of multiple compounds across multiple concentrations in a single microplate. However, due to the small assay volume, macro-dilution and agar dilution may be more appropriate for material that is highly viscous, or is otherwise difficult to setup and interpret in a microplate format. Disk diffusion can provide a quick qualitative assessment of antimicrobial activity, and typically works best with test material that is water soluble.
• What types of test articles can be used in MIC and MBC assays at Emery Pharma?
The test articles can be natural or synthetic, mixtures or purified.
• What types of microorganisms can Emery Pharma test against?
Emery Pharma can test against hundreds of bacterial strains, including multi-drug resistant clinical isolates and ESKAPE pathogens, as well as multiple fungal strains.
• What are ESKAPE pathogens and why are they important?
ESKAPE pathogens (E. faecium, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, E. cloacae) are a group of multi-drug resistant bacteria that are a major cause of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections. Their resistance to many antibiotics makes them a serious threat to public health.
• How is an MIC/MBC assay performed at Emery Pharma?
The process involves preparing serial dilutions of test compounds, creating an inoculum of the microorganism, dispensing the inoculum into a microdilution plate with the diluted compounds, incubating the plate, and then reading the plate to determine the MIC value. For MBC determination, a portion of each well is plated on agar media to check for colony formation after incubation
• What is a time-kill assay?
Time-kill assay study how quickly a drug can reduce live bacteria. This can inform drug developers and doctors how quickly a drug will act and how much it can reduce live bacteria over time. In addition to bacteria, this assay can also be used against fungi.
• How does Emery Pharma conduct time-kill assays?
The test compound is diluted to a concentration of interest in a liquid suspension (for example, 4 or 8 times the MIC value). The microorganism being tested is added to this suspension and incubated. At each time point being assessed, a small portion of the drug and microorganism mixture is removed to determine how many colonies are recovered. The time at which sample is removed to check for colony recovery is dependent on the mechanism of action of the material being tested. Antimicrobial activity of antiseptic drugs such as povidone-iodine exhibit activity within minutes, even seconds, of contact. While antibiotics that interfere with bacterial cellular function may require hours to see an effect on microorganism viability.
For further details, please don't hesitate to reach out to Emery Pharma at info@emerypharma.com or explore their website at:
emerypharma.com
Antimicrobial testing at Emery Pharma
Frequently Asked Questions
• Who is Emery Pharma and how can I contact them for a project?
Emery Pharma offers various services in chemistry, bioanalysis, cell & microbiology and litigation support. You can reach out to them by visiting their website and using the "Contact Us" button to submit a project proposal. An expert from Emery Pharma will then contact you.
• What is a Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) assay?
A Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) is one of the cornerstones of antimicrobial testing. MIC assay determine the lowest concentration of an antimicrobial agent that prevents visible growth of a microorganism in vitro. It's used to assess the effectiveness of antimicrobial compounds.
• What are Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) assays?
Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and Minimum Fungicidal Concentration (MFC) assays determine the lowest concentration of an antimicrobial agent required to kill bacteria (bactericidal) or fungi (fungicidal). Killing is defined as a 99.9% reduction in the initial inoculum.
• What methods does Emery Pharma use for antibiotic susceptibility testing?
Emery Pharma uses several methods for antibiotic susceptibility testing, following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines. These methods include broth micro- and macro-dilution, disk diffusion, and agar dilution.
• How do I know which method (broth micro- and macro-dilution, disk diffusion, and agar dilution) is the right one for my test material?
The microdilution method is one of the most commonly used MIC methods as it allows for testing of multiple compounds across multiple concentrations in a single microplate. However, due to the small assay volume, macro-dilution and agar dilution may be more appropriate for material that is highly viscous, or is otherwise difficult to setup and interpret in a microplate format. Disk diffusion can provide a quick qualitative assessment of antimicrobial activity, and typically works best with test material that is water soluble.
• What types of test articles can be used in MIC and MBC assays at Emery Pharma?
The test articles can be natural or synthetic, mixtures or purified.
• What types of microorganisms can Emery Pharma test against?
Emery Pharma can test against hundreds of bacterial strains, including multi-drug resistant clinical isolates and ESKAPE pathogens, as well as multiple fungal strains.
• What are ESKAPE pathogens and why are they important?
ESKAPE pathogens (E. faecium, S. aureus, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, P. aeruginosa, E. cloacae) are a group of multi-drug resistant bacteria that are a major cause of nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections. Their resistance to many antibiotics makes them a serious threat to public health.
• How is an MIC/MBC assay performed at Emery Pharma?
The process involves preparing serial dilutions of test compounds, creating an inoculum of the microorganism, dispensing the inoculum into a microdilution plate with the diluted compounds, incubating the plate, and then reading the plate to determine the MIC value. For MBC determination, a portion of each well is plated on agar media to check for colony formation after incubation
• What is a time-kill assay?
Time-kill assay study how quickly a drug can reduce live bacteria. This can inform drug developers and doctors how quickly a drug will act and how much it can reduce live bacteria over time. In addition to bacteria, this assay can also be used against fungi.
• How does Emery Pharma conduct time-kill assays?
The test compound is diluted to a concentration of interest in a liquid suspension (for example, 4 or 8 times the MIC value). The microorganism being tested is added to this suspension and incubated. At each time point being assessed, a small portion of the drug and microorganism mixture is removed to determine how many colonies are recovered. The time at which sample is removed to check for colony recovery is dependent on the mechanism of action of the material being tested. Antimicrobial activity of antiseptic drugs such as povidone-iodine exhibit activity within minutes, even seconds, of contact. While antibiotics that interfere with bacterial cellular function may require hours to see an effect on microorganism viability.
For further details, please don't hesitate to reach out to Emery Pharma at info@emerypharma.com or explore their website at:
emerypharma.com
