Future Proofing Law symposium at #UCDavis #futureproofinglaw #AI #algorithms #robots #CRISPR

This may be of interest to some here.  I made a Storify of the Tweets from the “Future Proofing Law” symposium that was at UC Davis yesterday and the day before.  There were multiple biotech. themed sessions and presentations as well as discussions of many topics connected to microBEnet in various ways such as open …

Legionella in the News

A few stories of possible interest on Legionella Source: Call to increase Legionella controls at home and hospitals Occasional testing for Legionella bacteria in hot water services, air-conditioner cooling towers and other potable water is not an adequate safeguard against a disease outbreak, a public health expert warns. Source: What You Need to Know About …

Legionella bacteria in Parliament showers 

So in searching for news stories about bacteria in buildings I found another one with some political connections: Source: Legionella bacteria spread into Parliament showers – timesofmalta.com This follows on my post from earlier: “Derelict White House” contaminated by leptospirosis causing bacteria #WhiteHouse As with that post, my headline here is not the whole story.  Yes Legionella …

“Derelict White House” contaminated by leptospirosis causing bacteria #WhiteHouse

So I was searching for any new announcements from the White House about bacteria and I stumbled upon this report from ITV Source: Police issue health warning over derelict building contaminated by bacterial infection In the story they report that the White House is infested with leptospirosis causing bacteria.  Quite a shock but it could …

Of possible interest: Biosafety Design Initiative courses and more

Got pointed to this Biosafety Design Initiative on Twitter @phylogenomics This may be of interest – “eval of clean & controlled environmnts & design of space & infrastructr” https://t.co/5P8iDsVt2o — Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) January 23, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js It may be of interest to some. They have courses and other activities connected to microbes in the built …

Quick post: Drosophila Genotype Influences Commensal Bacterial Levels in Lab Reared Flies

Just a quick post here.  This is an interesting paper on how genotype of Drosophila influences their microbiome. As a side story – I think flies could become an interesting and useful model for studying how the built environment (e.g., vials, cages, food, etc) influence microbiomes. Host genotype can influence the composition of the commensal …

Paper of possible interest: Microbial analysis of Heating systems’ surfaces 

Just a quick post – this may be of interest to some: An analysis of experimental investigation focused on microbial pollution of heated was carried out for heating systems installed in different types of buildings as residential houses and civil buildings. The results point on importance of maintenance and cleaning the heating systems for quality …

New paper of possible interest: High diversity of airborne fungi in the hospital environment 

Invasive fungal infections acquired in the hospital have progressively emerged as an important cause of life-threatening infection. In particular, airborne fungi in hospitals are considered critical pathogens of hospital-associated infections. Just a quick post – this may be of interest.  Source: High diversity of airborne fungi in the hospital environment as revealed by meta-sequencing-based microbiome …

Upcoming National Academies Study on Legionella in Drinking Water Systems

Just got this from the a representative of the National Academy of Sciences who asked me to post here. UPDATED June 13, 2017 (based on email from NAS) Scope of work: An ad hoc committee of The National Academies will review the state of science with respect to Legionella contamination of water systems and issue …