#COVID-19 Journal Club: “The wastewater microbiome: A novel insight for COVID-19 surveillance”

This is a bit more up our alley!  “The wastewater microbiome: A novel insight for COVID-19 surveillance” doesn’t look directly at the virus but at the changes in the wastewater microbiome that might proceed detection of SARS-CoV-2.  The authors claim to observe such changes which could potentially be really useful.  We already know that wastewater …

NAS “Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2” meeting webcast available #Covid19

Webcast Recording Now Available: Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2  Virtual Workshop August 26-27, 2020 Thank you for participating in our two-day workshop. To view the webcast recording click on this link: https://www.nationalacademies.org/event/08-26-2020/airborne-transmission-of-sars-cov-2-a-virtual-workshop   Event Description There is much we don’t know about the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. We know it can spread from …

Journal Club: “Initial Mapping of the New York City Wastewater Virome”

While not about COVID19 directly, this paper “Initial Mapping of the New York City Wastewater Virome” has implications for the many many folks looking at SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater these days.  This work is looking at all the viruses in the wastewater system and is one of relatively few metagenomic studies out there that focuses on …

Man-made microbial resistances in built environments

Antibiotic resistance has been assessed to rise to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world, and new resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally. At the same time the number of people dying from antibiotic-resistant bacteria is increasing. The World Health Organization considers the spread of antibiotic resistance and appropriate countermeasures as one …

Wrap up of Talk by Maria Gloria Dominguez Bello at UC Davis

Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello gave a talk at UC Davis on March 11, 2019.  This talk was part of the Storer Lectureship in Life Sciences series. Her talk was on “The Human Microbiome in an Age of Disruptive Change” and it was really quite good. I live Tweeted the talk and if you are interested the …

Fungi and bacteria and lice, oh my! These are some of Rob Dunn’s favorite things. 

Source: Opinion | Discovering the Great Indoors Definitely worth checking out this opinion piece in the NY Times bye Rob Dunn on “Discovering the Great Indoors”. It has a bit about Van Leeuwenhoek, and bits about fungi and lice and bacteria and tardigrades and foldscope and more.  Rob Dunn is really one of the great …

NASEM Webinar “Microbiome, Wastewater Treatment, and Antibiotic Resistance” 9/25/18

Just got this e-mail regarding an upcoming NASEM Webinar “Microbiome, Wastewater Treatment, and Antibiotic Resistance” on 9/25/18.  Here’s the description of the event: In 2017, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released the report, Microbiomes of the Built Environment: A Research Agenda for Indoor Microbiology, Human Health, and Buildings. The report highlights the importance …

Meeting: Applications, Promise and Public Implications of Metagenomics in Urban Settings

Just got pointed to a description of this 1-day meeting in New York on October 12, 2018… “It’s a Brave New World: Applications, Promise and Public Implications of Metagenomics in Urban Settings”.   Sounds like a great lineup of speakers and certainly a fascinating topic!   Meeting description below:   This 1-day symposium brings together urban microbiome …

Evolution happens: Bacteria becoming resistant to hospital disinfectants

Well, if true this is both troubling and not surprising: Bacteria becoming resistant to hospital disinfectants, warn scientists | Society | The Guardian The story reports on a paper in Science Translational Medicine. Some quotes: The results reveal that Enterococcus faecium bacteria have become more tolerant to alcohol over that time. “We found that the new …

This air resistance is a real drag: global survey of antibiotic resistance genes in air samples

This new open access paper from Li et al may be of interest. Global Survey of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Air.   Abstract: Despite its emerging significant public health concern, the presence of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in urban air has not received significant attention. Here, we profiled relative abundances (as a fraction, normalized by 16S rRNA …