Germ found in bottom section of academic gown (7)
I believe the answer is:
microbe
'germ' is the definition.
(I know that germ can be written as microbe)
'academic gown' is the wordplay.
'academic' becomes 'mic' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'gown' becomes 'robe' (synonyms).
'mic'+'robe'='MICROBE'
'found in bottom section of' is the link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for microbe that I've seen before include "virus" , "Bug, germ" , "minor cause for complaint" , "Bacterium, for example" , "Tiny organism that can cause disease" .)