Ah, the antibiotic resistance problem again. Yes, we know that antibiotic overuse-both in humans and in agriculture, contributes. This is not surprising. But how does our built environment contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance genes? The built environment is a perfect place for host and environmental microbes to collide and share gene, including antibiotic …
Just came across this review from Sharpe et al. at the University of Exeter, UK; “Modifiable factors governing indoor fungal diversity and risk of asthma”. I’ve just skimmed it so far, but it seems to be a good starting place for getting a handle on this topic. I like the emphasis on “modifiable factors”, implying …
We are all quite familiar with the age-old problem: many times, the diagnosis of the microbial agent responsible for an infection takes days. In the best of cases, a broad spectrum antibiotic is prescribed while doctors await lab results, which contributes to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. In the worst cases, the patient does …
These are just awesome: 4 Ventilation Quotes That Will Rock Your IAQ World. Maybe they are familiar to people who work on indoor air quality but I had never heard them . Thanks to the Energy Vanguard Blog for posting these. I particularly like “If there is a pile of manure in a space, do not try …
Well, just got notified via automated Google Scholar searches of a new book in the NCBI Book collection. This one seems of relevance both to studies of microbiology of the built environment and to some recent news stories: The Airliner Cabin Environment and the Health of Passengers and Crew. It is a report from the National Research Council …
Some interesting things in this post from Kelly Rae Chi at the Scientist: Metagenomics Mash-Up. It includes a discussion of metagenomics generally and then some metagenomic tools including MEGAN5, Kraken, MG-RAST, Metavir, and HI-C. The section on HI-C discusses the work of Chris Beitel in my lab. If you are doing metagenomic analysis or considering it or …
Quick post here. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has a podcast on “Pioneering Ideas” and it covers microbiomes of the built environment this week:1 RWJF Pioneering Ideas Podcast: Episode 5 | Conspiracy Theories, Microbiomes & More – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. They also give a nice plug for microBEnet. From their site: Microbiomes and Design (26:25) — …
Earlier this week I saw a fascinating talk by Rachel Dutton on the microbial communities in cheese rinds. Rachel is currently a Bauer Fellow at Harvard University and for the last few years she has been studying microbial communities in cheese rinds. She was at UC Davis on Monday to give a talk and it …
Today a colleague sent me a link to a Genome Biology paper entitled “The Kardashian index: a measure of discrepant social media profile for scientists.” At first glance, it reminded me of Greg Caporaso’s post about Twitter last month. But as I continued to read, the slight truth behind the premise described in the paper fascinated, …
Many recent news stories have been discussing a case of an outbreak in a hospital in Greenville, SC that has apprently been traced to drinking water contamination. Thus this may be of interest to a variety of people. See some links below: 4th patient with GHS infection dies. Fourth bacterial infection death reported at South …