A #COVID19 in the Built Environment preprint: shedding in a hospital

A preprint came out yesterday entitled “Transmission Potential of SARS-CoV-2 in Viral Shedding Observed at the University of Nebraska Medical Center“.  They looked at actual virus shed by patients in a healthcare setting (as opposed to artificial virus aerosols).  They found widespread contamination of surfaces and objects in the room… but all of the detection …

Story Behind the Paper: A comparison of methods used to unveil the genetic and metabolic pool in the built environment.

­­(This is a blog post by Cinta Gomez-Silvan, the first author on this paper) Story behind the paper: A comparison of methods used to unveil the genetic and metabolic pool in the built environment.   It seems pretty obvious that in the field of microbial ecology we need to understand how living microorganism interact. Nevertheless, …

“Schrödinger’s microbes: Tools for distinguishing the living from the dead in microbial ecosystems”

A few years ago I was hearing increasing discussion about the idea that much of the microbiology of the built environment was “stamp collecting” and that the indoor microbiome might consist largely of dead or non-viable material passively deposited indoors.  Many pweople argued that there was a need for better tools (or increased use of …