The driving force behind much of the new research in the microbiology of built environment is the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation which is funding a large variety of research projects, as well as microBEnet. For more information on their program, accomplishments to date, and goals for the future check out this written interview with Paula …
Just a quick holiday post with a 30 second video of an awesome microbiology Christmas tree in Washington state highlighting the very luminescent Photobacterium leiognathi.
Just a quick note about a funding opportunity of potential interest. The Department of Homeland Security “BAA 12-04 Whole Genome Approach to Microbial Forensics (WGAMF)” program has a grant called “Whole-genome sequencing to capture the global biodiversity of human, plant and animal pathogens (bacterial, viral and fungal) in support of microbial forensics analysis” https://baa2.st.dhs.gov/portal/public/Menu.action?page=baa_current_solicitations Here’s the …
When we talk about “community structure” in microbial ecology we are usually referring to the composition and frequency of various species in that community, information often arrived at through rRNA sequencing and/or metagenomics. But there is of course also a “real” structure of communities, particularly in biofilms. Some species tend to be physically associated with …
As with our recent musings on probiotics for buildings, sometimes it’s fun and productive to think about the distant future in the microbiology of the built environment. And Royal Philips Electronics (Netherlands) has done just that with their futuristic “Microbial Home” project. I’m not saying every one of their ideas will work, or that I’m …
Got this email from Jordan Peccia at Yale who is working on a report regarding sampling microbes in air. If you are working on sampling biological material from air please consider filling out the template and sending it to Jordan. Thanks Based on the Sloan Sponsored Indoor Microbiome Sampling Workshop held last spring, Jayne Morrow …
After reading this story today about Serratia marcescens I thought it would be interesting to have the occasional post highlighting a particular organism found in the built environment. Sort of like a baseball card collection of microbes. Name: Serratia marcescens Location: commonly found in showers, toilets, tiles etc. Fairly ubiquitous in damp environments. Description: rod-shaped, …
Jessica Green (http://biology.uoregon.edu/people/green/) and Brendan Bohannan(http://biology.uoregon.edu/ceeb/faculty_pages/Bohannan/) are currently seeking a bioinformatics postdoctoral researcher to explore fundamental questions in microbial ecology and evolution. Applicants should have a PhD with extensive training using bioinformatics to understand the ecology and/or evolution of complex biological communities, and strong writing skills. The ideal candidate will have experience developing and applying quantitative community and population ecological …
Year 2030 1: Construct a building 2: Spray bacteria and fungi all around the building 3: Wait a few weeks and then open for business Sound crazy? Not necessarily. This scenario, or something like it, is the kind of application that could theoretically come out of current studies on the microbiology of the built environment. …
Apparently September is “National Indoor Toxic Mold Awareness Month”. I’m not really sure what this means because virtually every link I found was some variant on “It’s Mold Awareness Month so please buy our product/service”. Which is fine of course but all that I could dig up was that this was started by a group …