How do you investigate about germs and how do you try to cure a disease?

Question: How do you investigate about germs and how do you try to cure a disease?
- Keywords:
  cure,
  disease,
  germ
Asked by Carolina to Marikka on 19 Nov 2014.
- Marikka Beecroft answered on 19 Nov 2014:
  
  I investigate bacteria through understanding how and why they need metals. Metals are important in bacteria, and indeed all life, as they are used in many reactions inside cells. Understanding how bacteria sense their environment and get the metals they need gives us another way to target them using antibiotics.
  
  Currently antibiotics don’t target metal systems in bacteria so in the future we could make some that do and know that they will work because bacteria haven’t built a resistance up to them as they’ve never seen them before. Hopefully this will help in the fight against antibiotic resistance!

Question: How do you investigate about germs and how do you try to cure a disease?