Most students of Dr. Mark Peppler have already picked up the required text (Bacterial Pathogenesis: A Molecular Approach) for the micro-biologist’s spring course at the University of Alberta.

And, thanks to his ingenuity, they’ll also bring a new research tool to the lab and lecture hall.

It’s a complete set of 106 multi-coloured MicrobeCards, suitable for framing, flipping or swapping.

The cards, on sale since mid-December and inspired by the baseball cards he collected as a kid growing up near Milwaukee, are Peppler’s baby.

Dr. Mark Peppler was inspired by the baseball trading cards of his boyhood.

And the story of how he and the U of A’s industry liaison office convinced a stuffy U.S. textbook publisher to
produce them proves that the associate professor of medical microbiology/immunology can fall back on his street smarts and marketing acumen, should tenure become a problem.

Put yourself in the place of an overworked nursing or med student. The profs expect you to familiarize yourself with hundreds of malevolent
micro-organisms. But traditional texts aren’t always much help.



“Say you’re looking for the epidemiology of a particular organism. You go from chapter to chapter in a textbook but that particular author might not even mention it,” said Peppler.

His answer: MicrobeCards.

Like baseball and hockey cards, Peppler’s colourful collectibles pack an enormous amount of data into a convenient package. They range from anthrax-causing bacillus anthraci (No. 2 in the set) to the mumps virus (No. 72) to the charming little parasite that gives us swimmer’s itch (schistosoma mansoni, No. 96).

Designed by graphic artist John Driedger, the cards include detailed images of each “player,” begged and borrowed from Alberta labs by a Peppler associate, Dr. Mark Joffe.

Consider, for example, No. 12, a bug known as
staphylococcus aureus.

The card’s A-side features selected action shots of the bacteria doing their worst, complete with an illustration of an infected arm. Flip over the card for the skinny on the superstar in question: diseases caused, pathogenesis, immunity, epidemiology, diagnosis, control, goals, assists and penalty minutes.

“There are atlases which show students pictures of how an organism grows on a plate. Or how it looks under the microscope,” Peppler explained.

“But (the books’) effectiveness depends on the consistency of the photographs, as well as the magnification,” he continued.

“For the MicrobeCards, we decided early on to put size bars on every picture so you know exactly the magnification of the picture you’re looking at.”

Displayed in plastic sleeves that allow a clear view of both back and front, cards can be organized in a variety of student-friendly ways: in numerical sequence (bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites) or by the diseases they cause.

Like so many worthwhile ideas, this one took years to drag from conception to fruition.

Things started to hop after Peppler and Driedger developed some early prototypes, which drew a positive response from nursing students. Then Peppler enlisted the aid of Bernadette Oreski, who led the marketing charge from the university’s industry liaison office.

Initially, Oreski pitched TOPPS, the U.S. manufacturer which created the Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews cards that Peppler treasured in the late 1950s. TOPPS was impressed, but declined to explore the uncharted territory of higher education. Ditto with a second manufacturer, based in Montreal.

Ultimately, the proposal crossed the desk of Jeff Holtmeier, director of an academic publishing house known as the American Society for Microbiology Press. Based in Herndon, Va., ASM is a credible, if somewhat stiff-necked, textbook publisher that made its name peddling super-scholarly titles. Want a little light reading? Try curling up with Molecular Biology of Picornaviruses, currently riding high on ASM’s hot list.

Though an unorthodox learning tool, Peppler’s cards piqued Holtmeier’s interest. The deal was finalized after the publisher unveiled samples at a German book fair, where delegates raved en masse.

Today, what’s left of the initial 5,000-card print run (1,000 were sold via advance orders) is available for $43.95 Cdn via the publisher’s website (www.asmpress.org), plus campus bookstores, Amazon.com and other booksellers.

As with all best-sellers, a sequel is planned. This second series will present, in a similar format, the anti-microbial compounds (i.e. antibiotics) devised by science to combat the insidious invaders depicted on MicrobeCards.

Meanwhile, the entrepreneurial lobe of the microbiologist’s brain is working overtime. Peppler confesses he’s toying with the notion of producing similar educational aids: chemistry cards, Canadian history cards, or maybe a set based on characters in the Bible.

Move over, TOPPS. There’s a new kid on the block.