Just received an announcement that a new project has been funded through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s program in the Microbiology of the Built Environment. The project is titled “The House Dust Fungal Microbiome — Influences and Effects.” and the PI is Susan V. Lynch from UCSF. She kindly sent us a summary description of the …
Here is part 2 in the “Walking in the footsteps of van Leeuwenhoek” story from Keith Seifert. Part 1 is here. Walking in the footsteps of van Leeuwenhoek (part 2): My van Leeuwenhoek walk “But what if one should tell such people in the future that there are more animals living in the scum on …
The next of the new Sloan foundation funded projects in the field is being undertaken by Jordan Peccia at Yale University and is entitled “Qualitative Building Moisture Characteristics and Microbial Diversity” Project description below: There exists a significant gap in our understanding of how the building environment mediates human exposure to bacterial and fungal diversity. …
The Department of Defense, Defense Medical Research and Development Program (DMRDP), Military Infectious Diseases Research Program (MIDRP) and Joint Program Committee 2 (JPC-2) has recently announced a funding opportunity: Military Infectious Diseases Clinical Trial Award (MID-CTA). Detailed descriptions of the funding opportunity, evaluation criteria, and submission requirements can be found in the Program Announcement. The …
The Sloan Program in the Microbiology of the Built Environment awarded a few new grants this spring. The first of these was to Kyle Bibby at the University of Pittsburgh called “Microbial Ecology Dynamics of Hospital Premise Plumbing Following the Introduction of an On-Site Monochloramine Disinfection System”. The project is being conducted in collaboration with …
The Sloan Foundation recently convened grantees for the 2nd Conference on the Microbiology of the Built Environment, and the opening talk focused on the benefits of collaboration. Carlos Rodriguez reminded us (I’m paraphrasing), “When you look at problems in silos, you find solutions in silos. But when you look at problems across disciplines, you find …
This meeting is an annual gathering to bring together all of the Sloan grantees, their labs, and other stakeholders in the field to discuss the status of the microbiology of the built environment program. Thanks again to Mark Hernandez and Alina Handorean for all their hard work in putting it together. Note that I will …
The National Toxicology Program (NTP) just released an updated fact sheet on mold in the built environment. Very handy introduction to the subject, including some information on current research on the topic. Thanks to James Scott for bringing this to our attention.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has created a new funding opportunity in its Microbiology of the Built Environment (MoBE) program. The Foundation seeks to further the development of talented early stage Ph.D. scientists and engineers by establishing the Microbiology of the Built Environment (MoBE) Postdoctoral Fellowship program. The program will provide support for postdoctoral researchers …
In their just published paper in Environmental Science & Technology, “Tetracycline Resistance and Class 1 Integron Genes Associated with Indoor and Outdoor Aerosols,” Alison L. Ling, Norman R. Pace, Mark T. Hernandez, and Timothy M. LaPara have found that genes escape the indoor environment and can be found 2 km away. The abstract can be …