Not surprisingly, the skin microbiome changes accordingly with human contact, according to this study found through PeerJ. Researchers aimed to study a high contact sport and see how the skin microbiome changes before and after a game. They used roller derby, and as anyone who has watched the movie Whip it! will know, there is a …
I am in the process of teaching a course on “DNA sequence based studies of microbial diversity” and I thought it would be of use to some people to post about it. So here goes. I have made a landing page for the course and for slides and such material here. EVE 161: DNA sequence based …
So – my microBEnet project has spent a lot of time working on this reference collection that we have currently in Mendeley. Microbiology of the Built Environment | Mendeley Group. In addition to just collecting these 700+ papers we have also added our own tags to the references in regard to the types of environments …
This recent article in Science Daily tells of a bacteria that “breathes” poisons, like antimony and arsenic. It also reduces contaminants, like selenium and tellurium, often found in wastewater from mines and refineries. Isolated from Mono Lake by researchers from the University of Georgia, this bacteria enjoys hot, high salt environments. Interesting implications of this bacteria’s …
Professor Jane Carlton, the director of the NYU Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, is leading a team of scientists to study the metagenome of New York City. They have begun a pilot study of the microbial populations on one dollar bills, and they have begun to sample different sewage lines in all five boroughs. In …
Just a quick “save the date” note here. The 3rd annual Conference on the Microbiology of the Built Environment will be held at the Boulder Marriott (same as last year) on June 4-6 2014. This conference is typically limited to Sloan grantees, their labs, and various folks from the field invited by the Sloan Foundation. …
The human microbiome and microbes in space are two of the sexiest topics in microbiology today. Together they have attracted the attention of the J. Craig Venter Institute. Hernan Lorenzi is leading a team to study how the composition of the human microbiome changes during long term space exploration. They will be analyzing the microbiome of …
Among the cleanest and wealthiest countries in the world, Finland has the highest rate of Type 1 diabetes, while other messier and poorer countries have much lower rates. A recent article in the Washington Post discusses ongoing research to explore how exposure to dust and bacteria in houses might contribute to the onset of Type …
US news just published an article, Disinfectants Can’t Defeat Salmonella in Food-Processing Plants: Study, discussing the inability of currently used disinfectants to eradicate or even reduce viable counts of Salmonella. The full article, Commonly used disinfectants fail to eradicate Salmonella enterica biofilm from food contact surface materials, is located behind a paywall in the Journal of Applied and Environmental Microbiology …
Just discovered this report: BEACON eSpace at Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Genetic inventory task final report. It is a summary of genetic studies of microbes found on various spacecraft and associated facilities. Abstract: Contaminant terrestrial microbiota could profoundly impact the scientific integrity of extraterrestrial life-detection experiments. It is therefore important to know what organisms persist on spacecraft …