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Welcome to the Pharmaceutical Microbiology Forum (PMF)

The Pharmaceutical Microbiology Forum (PMF) is a not-for-profit scientific and educational organization founded in 1992 to provide a forum for microbiologists involved in the pharmaceutical, medical device, personal product, biotechnology, cosmetic, and related microbiology laboratory areas to exchange information on microbiological issues. The PMF also provides an opportunity to interact with regulatory agencies internationally. Sponsors are critical for the continued existence of the PMF. Please click HERE for a downloadable pdf file containing all you need to know to become a valued sponsor of the PMF, and thank you in advance!

Interactive Forum

The previous PMFList, devoted to topics of interest to microbiologists working in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and medical device industries, was formerly distributed over email via the Internet. While useful, this approach became prone to interruptions, sometimes spanning weeks, and required moderation prior to the appearance of questions and answers. Having become more cumbersome than desired, the email-based approach has been replaced with a more modern and responsive online forum (click the "Forum" navigation button). The online forum is available for anyone to read, but submitting questions/answers/comments will require that you register to the Forum. If you have any questions about the Forum, please send them to [email protected]. Thank you!

News

June 25. 2024 There are now three versions of WordSearch puzzles available at the PMF website (basic, medium, hard) under the Training tab. Each of the new versions has certain features in common:

1. Each time you refresh the browser, a new puzzle appears (same words, different locations in the grid).

2. There are 2 ways to identify ("circle") words you find in the grid:
a. Click on a letter adjacent to the first or last letter of the word (but not in the word) and move the mouse over the remaining letters. When a word has been properly identified in this manner, the background will change from yellow to a shade of grey. The word in the list will change colors to purple.
b. Or, double click on the first or last letter of the word (but not in the word). The first double click will make the background orange, the second will make the background grey if the word has been properly identified in this manner.The word in the list will change colors to purple.
c. You can "circle" the word at any time.
d. If the puzzle should become cluttered with yellow and/or orange boxes, just click the "Clean" button.
e. You can click on the "Background" button to bring up information that may be helpful particularly with the medium and hard versions of the puzzles.

Now for the differences among the 3 versions:

1. Basic version:
a. The words to be found are provided under the grid.
b. If you get stuck, you can click on the difficult word in the list and its location in the grid will be highlighted. Click again to remove the highlight. You can "circle" the word at any time.

2. Medium version:
a. The words to be found are not provided under the grid.
b. If you get stuck, you can click on one of the grey boxes located under the grid once. This will bring up the associated word in the grey box for you to locate in the grid.
c. For further help, you can click on the same grey box, now with the word to locate displayed, and this will show the location of the word in the grid.
d. You can "circle" the word at any time.

3. Hard version:
a. The words to be found are not provided under the grid.
b. Clicking on one of the grey boxes under the grid will do nothing (no help for you).
c. The only way to display the associated word in its respective grey box is to identify ("circle") the word in the grid.
d. This is where the background information can come in handy.

These puzzles, in one form or another, might be useful for training purposes They could also be used as an entertaining way for sponsors to get parts of their message out. Please just let the site administrator (David A. Porter) know if you have any interest in such usages.

Sponsor News

"Bulletins", or items of current interest related to PMF sponsors can be placed here. Example of such items (fictitious) for several fictitious sponsors are presented below:

Acme Culture Products: Clostridium difficile is difficult to culture in part due to its extreme sensitivity to oxygen. Cd Magic Medium has been developed by Acme Culture Products to obviate the need for an anaerobic chamber by virtue of its formation of an oxygen-impermeable shell after plate pouring.
Acme Consultants: There are numerous types of environmental monitoring, and an array of uses for such monitoring. One means of controlling microbiological quality of products is by maintaining control of the environment such products are produced and handled in. Acme Consultants has recently developed an online course designed to teach the basics of environmental monitoring that should be of use to any personnel involved in pharmaceutical, medical device, personal product, biotechnology, cosmetic, and related microbiology laboratory areas.
Acme Contract Laboratories: Compendial tests are required for many products. Understanding what situations, and when the testing should be done, is not as simple as matter as may seem to be the case. Acme Contract Laboratories has created a pamphlet describing the compendial tests typically required for a range of products that also discusses the rationale behind the requirements.

Note that for each instance, some form of educational information is provided. As a nonprofit organization, the PMF needs to be certain that the information supplied by sponsors has an educational purpose and is not merely an advertisement. Items proposed for inclusion in the Sponsor News section, or in the sponsor's dedicated web page at the PMF website (click an icon in the first column of the table at the Sponsors page), should be sent to [email protected] for review.