(cross-posted with modifications from the Eisen Lab blog) Not enough reference genomes from the built environment? Looking for ways to increase undergraduate participation in research? The marriage of these two concepts seems fairly straightforward. Bring undergraduates into the lab, have them culture microbes from the built environment, then sequence and assemble genomes… one per student. …
Here at the intersection of microbial ecology and building science we spend a lot of time talking about “what is known?”… or in most cases “what don’t we know?”. In this sense “we” is considered the sum total of people working on these topics. Until this week, I’d never thought much about “what do non-scientists …
An excellent workshop summary came out today entitled “Challenges in Microbial Sampling in Indoor Environments”. Download the PDF here This workshop was held Feb 14-15 2011 and was a collaboration between the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), and Yale University. The purpose of the Challenges in Microbial Sampling …
We’ve posted in the past (here, here, here, and here) about some of the interesting work taking place at the BioBE Center regarding microbial community structure in health-care facilities. Today a paper on this topic came out in the ISME Journal. This paper is certainly worth a read for anyone interested in the microbiology of …
The driving force behind much of the new research in the microbiology of built environment is the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation which is funding a large variety of research projects, as well as microBEnet. For more information on their program, accomplishments to date, and goals for the future check out this written interview with Paula …
Just a quick holiday post with a 30 second video of an awesome microbiology Christmas tree in Washington state highlighting the very luminescent Photobacterium leiognathi.
Another “scary microbe that lives in your house/office/car” story. In this case, the fungi Fusarium which can be pathogenic, particularly for people with immune deficiencies. To be fair, the authors of the scientific study take pains to point out that “the serious infections caused by fusaria are relatively uncommon and that these fungi may even …
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as a group are of major concern to those who study indoor air quality. A few of these are produced by microbes (mVOCs) but most are from our use of chemicals in building materials and disinfection. The potential role of microbes in the mediation of VOCs is not particularly well understood …
Just a quick note about a funding opportunity of potential interest. The Department of Homeland Security “BAA 12-04 Whole Genome Approach to Microbial Forensics (WGAMF)” program has a grant called “Whole-genome sequencing to capture the global biodiversity of human, plant and animal pathogens (bacterial, viral and fungal) in support of microbial forensics analysis” https://baa2.st.dhs.gov/portal/public/Menu.action?page=baa_current_solicitations Here’s the …
When we talk about “community structure” in microbial ecology we are usually referring to the composition and frequency of various species in that community, information often arrived at through rRNA sequencing and/or metagenomics. But there is of course also a “real” structure of communities, particularly in biofilms. Some species tend to be physically associated with …