The world of microbiology overlaps the world of medicine. As a result, trained microbiologists find a diversity of career paths and opportunity in medicine.

Research in medical microbiology can involve clinical or basic science. Clinical microbiology focuses on the microbiological basis of various diseases and how to alleviate the suffering caused by the infectious microorganism. Basic medical research is concerned more with the molecular events associated with infectious diseases or illnesses.

Both medical training and microbiology contain many different areas of study. Medical microbiology is likewise an area of many specialties. A medical bacteriologist can study how bacteria can infect humans and cause disease, and how these disease processes can be dealt with. A medical mycologist can study pathogenic (disease-causing) fungi, molds and yeast to find out how they cause disease. A parasitologist is concerned with how parasitic...