Introduction to microbial identification and typing methods -- Brief overvies of microbial identification -- Conventional biological methods for microbial typing -- Molecular approaches to microbial identification and typing -- Analysis of nucleic acid profiles -- Plasmid analysis -- Analysis of chromosomal DNA -- Identification and typing by nucleic acid hybridization techniques -- Basic principles of nucleic acid hybridization -- Analysis of RFLPs by hybridization techniques -- Nucleic acid amplification and sequencing techniques -- Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) -- Other amplification methods -- Nucleic acid sequencing techniques -- Analysis of protein and lipopolysaccharide profiles -- Introduction to protein fingerprinting -- Protein analysis -- Lipopolysaccharide typing schemes -- Typing and identification of microorganisms with antibodies -- Production of antibodies for serotyping and identification -- Techniques used in serotyping.