On March 7, 2014, Ben Johnson wrote an all-encompassing blog post about the microbiome of the classroom’s built environment. (Dr. Jonathan Eisen also mentions Johnson’s article in a blog post a day afterwards.) In his blog post, not only does Johnson describe the different types of microbes living on the walls, desks, and chairs in the classroom, but …
Lots and lots of news stories about the BioBE center and some of their recent work on “microbiomes of classrooms”. Here is a collection of links: Their paper in the new journal “Microbiome”: microbiota in the classroom University of Oregon story: UO center on quest to document indoor microbes, guide healthier buildings | Around the O. Who’s …
From the BioBE Center … What sorts of bacteria did we find in a university classroom? from BioBE Center on Vimeo.
A recent microbe.net post discussed the use of copper as an antimicrobial to prevent infections in healthcare settings. This is not a particularly new concept, but unfortunately, the literature appears dominated by authors who received funding from the copper industry and its associations. Such industrial funding is not unique to copper and is, sadly, more …
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech invites applications for a postdoctoral researcher to study the influence of aerosol chemistry on the infectivity of airborne influenza viruses. The successful candidate must hold a doctoral degree and demonstrate appropriate background in environmental engineering, atmospheric chemistry, biology, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, or mechanical engineering. …
I just completely love this: MICROBIOLOGY TODAY: REAL SUPERHEROES. From the news for the Society for General Microbiology: Society news | Society for General Microbiology. The February Issue of the magazine “Microbiology Today” features some microbial superheroes with some great art and photos. The immortal, halophilic superhero: Halobacterium salinarum — a long-lived poly-extremophile The shape-shifting superhero: …
This interesting review article from 2012 bridges clinical Microbiology and the study of the built environment. Authors Borkow and Monk discuss various sources of nosocomial infections (NI) and a potential solution to the problem. Despite rigorous efforts to sterilize and sanitize hospitals, NI are persistent and pose a serious threat to patients who are already …
I asked the Twittersphere last week for suggestions for hashtags to use for Tweets about microbiology of the built environment Here are some of the answers [View the story “Hashtags for microbiology of the built environment” on Storify] UPDATE: March 25, 2018 Since Storify is disappearing soon we converted the Storify into a “Wakelet” and …
Illustration (from OpenScar.com) an explanation of the beginning of the spread of SARS in Hong Kong’s Amoy Gardens apartment complex where the index case was in a building 60 meters away from a building where about 45% of the 300 infected individuals at Amoy Gardens lived. Many of the other infected individuals also lived in …
When the average person hears the terms “microbiology” and “genetics,” often mental images involving lab coats, complicated chemical reactions, forensic TV shows, and futuristic advancements come to mind. However, just this week, a team of scientists at the University of York published a paper in “Nature Genetics” (Christina Warinner et al, Pathogens and host immunity in …