microbiology of the Built Environment session at Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes meeting

microBEnet sponsored a “Microbiology of the Built Environment” session at the Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes meeting earlier today. The schedule for the session is below Rachel Dutton University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA “Genetics and Genomics of the Simple Microbial Communities from Cheese” Elizabeth Hénaff Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY “The Microbiome …

Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomes #LAMG16: Day 3

First up today was Rachel Dutton talking about “Horizontal gene transfer in Cheese”.  She began by talking about cheese as a great model system for understanding the principles behind microbial community formation.  Many replicates, controlled conditions, manipulable etc.  After doing initial 16S/ITS survey they cultured representatives of all the dominant genera in the cheeses and …

Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomics #LAMG16 Report: Day 2

Esther Singer opened the day talking about “Metagenomics to Reveal Correlations between Switchgrass Ecotypes and their Microbial Communities”.  She told a nice story about the ecotype-specificity of the rhizosphere and phyllosphere microbial communities.  I was surprised that for some bacteria this was evident even at the phylum level… so big differences. Daria Van Tyne “Changes …

Gut Check: The Microbiome Game now available for purchase

So 18 months after we released the free, print-at-home version of Gut Check: The Microbiome game we finally have a commercial version!  The game is available from MOBIO Laboratories here, for the very reasonable price of $20 with free shipping.  For a really nice write-up about the game, check out this blog post from Anne …

Backyard chickens linked to increasing Salmonella outbreaks

So I feel like this shouldn’t need to be said… but clearly it does.  Don’t kiss chickens or bring them into your bedroom.  Should my opinion not carry enough weight, simply check out this new report from the CDC “Outbreaks of Human Salmonella Infections Associated with Live Poultry, United States, 1990—2014”.  Abstract below.  Major highlights …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, September 17, 2016

Microbes and indoor plants The plant is crucial: specific composition and function of the phyllosphere microbiome of indoor ornamentals – Rocel Amor Ortega – FEMS Microbiology Ecology ($39 for 1 day) The plant microbiome is a key determinant of plant health. Less is known about the phyllosphere microbiota and its driving factors in built environments. To …

Faculty Position in Microbial Ecology At Dartmouth

Faculty Position in Microbial Ecology Department of Biological Sciences Hanover, NH USA The Department of Biological Sciences at Dartmouth College seeks applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Microbial Ecology. We seek highly qualified candidates who investigate important questions relating to the ecology of microbes and their interactions with other organisms. Candidates must have …

Open Faculty Position: Assistant Professor of Sustainable Buildings, The Ohio State University

Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering and Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Engineering Applications are invited for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the field of Sustainable Buildings with a primary appointment in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering and a joint appointment in the Department of Food, …

NASA postdoctoral fellowship solicitation to study the microbiology of the #ISS

In parallel to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation offer of two postdoctoral fellowships to study the microbiology of the ISS, NASA is also issuing a pair of postdoc fellowships on their end.  The collaboration between Sloan and NASA is great to see, since there is significant overlap between their interests in this field.  I’m really …