New paper of interest on antibiotic resistance genes in 4 CA cities but dangerous PR from UCLA

This new paper may be of interest: Source: Disparate Antibiotic Resistance Gene Quantities Revealed across 4 Major Cities in California: A Survey in Drinking Water, Air, and Soil at 24 Public Parks – ACS Omega (ACS Publications) Abstract: Widespread prevalence of multidrug and pandrug-resistant bacteria has prompted substantial concern over the global dissemination of antibiotic …

Compiling a list of Microbiology of the Built Environment related presentations at ASMicrobe17

I am compiling information about presentations related to MoBE topics at the ASM Microbe 2017 meeting.  This may be useful to those attending the meeting in selecting where to go and also to those outside who might be interested presentations on MoBE topics at this meeting. If anyone knows of others, please let me know. …

Dirty money: interesting data but unclear what implications are

OK.  So money has microbes on it.  Not surprising.  And when people find out such information they frequently go overboard in the germophobia. See for example these stories from over the years 1999: Filthy Lucre – Paper Money As A Vector Of Disease 2010: Dirty money 1: Expect germs 2010: How Bad Are Germs on Money 2012: …

Who are the microbes in your neighborhood? In your neighborhood? In your neighborhood?

Sorry for the headline here but when I saw this news story (British scientists survey infectious bacteria by having people walk outside in socks – The Washington Post). I just could not get Mr. Rogers’ “Who are the people in your neighborhood” out of my head. But with the “people” replaced by “microbes”. Why did this …

A fascinating side story to brain-defect microbiome study – major role of the built environment

So there is a new paper out that is incredibly interesting and has been getting lots of press coverage.  The paper was in Nature: Endothelial TLR4 and the microbiome drive cerebral cavernous malformations. Sadly it is behind a paywall, so not everyone out there will have free access to it. But it is available in sci-hub …

Could be interesting: The Metagenomics MVP Challenge v1.0

Source: NIST Challenge — CosmosID – Exploring the Universe of Microbes This could be interesting.  NIST & COSMOS ID and ABRF are conducting a metagenomic sequencing methods challenge. From their site: When using metagenomic methods to assess the content of a complex microbial sample, there are many steps in the measurement process where bias might …

American Society for Microbiology “#asmicrobe” meeting June 1-5

Coming up in June (June 1-5) in New Orleans.  ASM Microbe 2017, the Annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. For more information see https://www.asm.org/index.php/asm-microbe-2017 The meeting should be very good. Hotel deadline is May 17. For sessions on some topics of interest see Antimicrobial Agents and Infectious Diseases Applied and Environmental Science Clinical and …

When a humongous amount of fungus among us is not a good thing …

OK – full blown mushrooms are not microbes.  But they are fungi.  And a lot of fungi are microbial.  So I am ignoring the multicellular nature of these mushrooms here – after all – nobody’s perfect.  Anyway – thought this might be of interest to those thinking about fungi in the built environment. Source: UPDATE: City …