Worth a read: Contributions of pioneering women in indoor environment and health

Worth checking this out I think. Source: Contributions of pioneering women in indoor environment and health – Nazaroff – 2016 – Indoor Air – Wiley Online Library From the introduction: On occasion, this journal has recounted historical achievements in the indoor air sciences. Sundell[1] provided a broad-ranging overview. I have written about the history of …

Worth a read: Annotating public fungal ITS sequences from the built environment

Definitely worth checking this out. Recent molecular studies have identified substantial fungal diversity in indoor environments. Fungi and fungal particles have been linked to a range of potentially unwanted effects in the built environment, including asthma, decay of building materials, and food spoilage. The study of the built mycobiome is hampered by a number of …

Open Faculty Position: Assistant Professor of Sustainable Buildings, The Ohio State University

Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering and Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, College of Engineering Applications are invited for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the field of Sustainable Buildings with a primary appointment in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering and a joint appointment in the Department of Food, …

NASA postdoctoral fellowship solicitation to study the microbiology of the #ISS

In parallel to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation offer of two postdoctoral fellowships to study the microbiology of the ISS, NASA is also issuing a pair of postdoc fellowships on their end.  The collaboration between Sloan and NASA is great to see, since there is significant overlap between their interests in this field.  I’m really …

Dual postdoctoral fellowship opportunity to study the microbiology of the #ISS

This is so awesome. The Sloan Program in Microbiology of the Built Environment is offering a pair of postdoc fellowships to work on the microbiology of the International Space Station. Summary of the call is below, the compete information packet can be downloaded here.  And if that’s not cool enough, the next blog post is …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, September 10, 2016

Studying the 5 second rule, antibiotic resistance genes in indoor dust and sewers, Legionella in the air, and water treatment. Microbes on the floor Longer Contact Times Increase Cross-Contamination of Enterobacter aerogenes from Surfaces to Food — Robyn C. Miranda — Applied and Environmental Microbiology ($25 for 1 day) Bacterial cross-contamination from surfaces to food can …

Review of interest: antimicrobial resistance in the environment (water edition)

There is a review out in Water Environment Research that may be of interested. Title: Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment Water Environment Research, 2016 Literature Review, pp. 1951-1967(17) Authors: Williams, Maggie R.; Stedtfeld, Robert D.; Guo, Xueping; Hashsham, Syed A. Abstract. This review summarizes important publications from 2015 pertaining to the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, August 27, 2016

Microbes found in ambulances Not surprisingly, bacteria could be detected after swabbing surfaces in ambulances. Detection and characterization of surface microbial contamination in emergency ambulances – Aketza Varona-Barquin – American Journal of Infection Control ($35.95) A cross-sectional study was performed in 10 emergency basic life support ambulances operating in Bilbao, Spain, to assess surface bacterial …

“Bacteria found in infants has also been found in pipes of Maryland hospital”

Just a short post about a news story recently where they have traced Pseudomonas found in NICU infants to the pipes in the building.  It’s still in the early stages of the investigation… but it makes me wonder why routine surveillance isn’t more common.  I feel like we often hear stories about finding Legionella, Pseudomonas, …