Search Results for: space

#COVID19 Preprint Journal Club: “Implementing a Negative Pressure Isolation Space within a Skilled Nursing Facility to Control SARS-CoV-2 Transmission”

By David Coil   Posted in .Featured Coronavirus
Posted on

Another useful preprint by Shelly Miller at CU Boulder and colleagues.  In this case, “Implementing a Negative Pressure Isolation Space within a Skilled Nursing Facility to Control SARS-CoV-2 Transmission” is exactly what the title says.  A demonstration of modifying an existing HVAC system to control the flow of air in a high risk environment.  Good …

Story Behind the Paper: Draft genomes from JPL spacecraft… assembled by undergraduates

By David Coil   Posted in .Featured Space
Posted on

Just a quick post here that our paper just came out, “Draft Genome Sequences of Bacillus glennii V44-8, Bacillus saganii V47-23a, Bacillus sp. Strain V59.32b, Bacillus sp. Strain MER_TA_151, and Paenibacillus sp. Strain MER_111, Isolated from Cleanrooms Where the Viking and Mars Exploration Rover Spacecraft Were Assembled“.  This describes the genomes of a couple new …

Report on 2020 Spacecraft-Associated Genome Analysis (SAGAn) workshop at NASA JPL

By David Coil   Posted in .Featured Bioinformatics Microbiology of the Built Environment Space Transportation
Posted on

So this last week, we ran a workshop on bacterial genomics at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).  Who is “we”?  An amazing collaboration across several institutions.  The whole thing was initiated by Dr. Parag Vaishampayan (NASA-JPL), who contacted myself (UC Davis), Dr. Elinne Becket (Cal State San Marcos), and Dr. Kenisha Johnson (Alabama A&M) about …

Job posting: Metagenomics analysis of spacecraft at JPL (Postdoctoral Fellow)

By David Coil   Posted in .Featured Job postings Space
Posted on

I’m a sucker for space microbiome research, I admit.   Here’s a great sounding postdoc opportunity with our collaborator Parag Vaishampayan at JPL. Job Details Job ID: 11208 We ask the biggest questions, then search the universe for answers—literally. And, with great opportunities come great responsibilities! In the Biotechnology and Planetary Protection group at JPL, we …

Water, microbes and space 

By Jonathan Eisen   Posted in Space
Posted on

Some cool new projects funded by NASA including one on microbes in water in space being run by Jiseon Yang at ASU. NASA has awarded 15 grants for new space biology research designed to help the agency achieve its goals under the Artemis lunar exploration program. Teams of investigators will use state-of-the-art Source: NASA Artemis …

Space Station conditions are selective but do not alter microbial characteristics relevant to human health

By Kaisa Koskinen   Posted in .Featured Antimicrobials and Resistance Built Environment Topics Human Microbiome Microbiology Microbiology of the Built Environment Space
Posted on

Human space exploration beyond Earth and Moon is a declared goal of NASA, ESA, Roscosmos and other space-faring agencies, with human Mars mission envisioned in the near future. One of the major challenges of the mission is protecting the human crew from illness and infection caused by harmful biological contaminants. To evaluate these challenges in …

Microbial and Human Health Monitoring for Space Flight Meeting

By David Coil   Posted in .Featured Space
Posted on

This is a meeting report from the 2019 “3rd COSPAR Meeting to Address Planetary Protection Knowledge Gaps for Human Missions and Working Meeting on Microbial and Human Health Monitoring”.  As much as NASA loves acronyms, I can see why no one liked the idea of the “COSPAR-MAPPKGHMWMMHHM 2019” name. Speaking of acronyms… COSPAR stand for …

Great paper on Space Station Microbes and how they are not all waiting to kill you …

By Jonathan Eisen   Posted in Space
Posted on

Just posting some Tweets here … I really recommend people check out this paper. There is a new paper from @rblauste @ericamhartmann et al. that is a must read on microbes on the space station – see PR here https://t.co/Wi2vIUVTT5 from @NorthwesternU and paper here from @mSystemsJ https://t.co/cpD926urKD 1/n — Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) January 9, …

Job posting (postdoc): Metagenomics of spacecraft-associated microbes at JPL

By David Coil   Posted in .Featured Job postings
Posted on

Really exciting sounding postdoc opportunity with Parag Vaishampayan at JPL, “Metagenomics approach for genetic inventory of microbes to identify, document, and archive broadest spectrum of potential terrestrial contaminants during the spacecraft assembly process“. Plus I have to say that is the coolest looking recruitment banner that I’ve ever seen in my life. Job posting here.  …

Story Behind the Paper: Radiation Resistant Bacillus spores from Spacecraft Assembly Facilities

By David Coil   Posted in .Featured Space
Posted on

(This is a guest blog post, written by Madhan Tirumalai and George Fox, authors of the publication)   Comparative genomics help identify novel genes of radiation resistant spore producing Bacillus sp. from Spacecraft assembly facilities   Madhan R Tirumalai and George E. Fox Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, USA.   The …