“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 …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, January 21, 2017

  Microbes in the house and office A survey of xerophilic Aspergillus from indoor environment, including descriptions of two new section Aspergillus species producing eurotium-like sexual states – Cobus M. Visagie – MycoKeys (OA) Xerophilic fungi grow at low water activity or low equilibrium relative humidity and are an important part of the indoor fungal …

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 …

Humans as collectors and emitters of environmental microbes

As part of the Healthy Buildings 2015 America Conference, there was a technical session on Indoor Microbiome Research where we discussed strategies on, among other things, how to sample and analyze bioaerosols using modern high throughput sequencing techniques. In that workshop, we did a small exercise highlighting the potential for humans to transport microbes into …

What kind of DNA lingers on ATM keypads? Your food, your skin microbes…and (maybe) parasites

Amidst the November/December holiday chaos, myself and co-authors were proud to witness the publication of a neat new paper focused on ATM keypads in New York City. Yes, just like all other surfaces in the Built Environment, those ATM keypads are harboring lots of microbes and bits of orphaned DNA! This ATM keypad study was work that …

Multiple Positions Open at University of Oregon BioBE Center

Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg and Jessica Green, of the Biology and the Built Environment Center (BioBE), are currently seeking a microbial ecology Research Associate / Research Assistant Professor / Research Associate Professor (non-tenure track faculty) to investigate fundamental questions surrounding the role of microorganisms (bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, and viruses) in the built environment and …

The concept of hygiene and the human microbiome.

(This post was written by Roo Vandegrift at the University of Oregon) I was recently asked to spearhead the writing of a review centered around the interaction between the concept of hygiene and our increasingly nuanced understanding of the human skin microbiome for the Biology and the Built Environment (BioBE) Center at the University of …