Studying – not wantonly killing – the microbes around us and the rise of the “microbiology of the built environment”

Imagine you have a camera with a special “anti-macro” lens.  This lens scrubs from any image all plants and animals and other “macro” organisms.  And this lens also highlights  the remaining living things – the microorganisms – anywhere in the frame (including those that were in or on the macro organisms removed from the image). …

Sloan MBE grantees: Save the date, June 4-6 for the 3rd annual conference in Boulder

Just a quick “save the date” note here.  The 3rd annual Conference on the Microbiology of the Built Environment will be held at the Boulder Marriott (same as last year) on June 4-6 2014.  This conference is typically limited to Sloan grantees, their labs, and various folks from the field invited by the Sloan Foundation. …

Moving Public Perception from Abiotic to Probiotic

The two greatest scientific breakthroughs of twentieth century, if we measure by increased life expectancy, were improvements in our ability to kill microorganisms (drinking water disinfection and the invention of antibiotics). Perhaps as a remnant of these advances, it seems to me that the average citizen has a largely abiotic mindset, seeing microorganisms as agents …

Call for Abstracts – Indoor Air 2014, Hong Kong

Abstracts are sought to address building science issues in the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s program, Microbiology of the Built Environment. The Sloan Foundation is sponsoring a symposium as an important part of the conference. The emphasis of the Sloan Symposium will be on the building science aspects of studies of the indoor microbiome — in …

Microbial VOCs and Health – report from Basel conference Indoor Microbiome Symposium

Many indoor environmental investigators have attempted to use volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by microbes as an indicator of the presence or potential health relevance of the indoor microbiome. These compounds emitted by microbes are generally referred to as MVOCs. The airborne concentrations of MVOCs is usually too low for characterization by the usual indoor …

Sloan Grant renewal for microBEnet

Just got the good news that microBEnet will continue to be funded by the Sloan Program in the Microbiology of the Built Environment for the next two years.   After three years of attempting to help the field with “curation, communication, collaboration, connection” we have taken this as an opportunity to re-assess our direction and goals. …

Announcement of 2013 MoBE Postdoctoral Fellows

The Sloan Foundation has just announced their 2013 Microbiology of the Built Environment Postdoctoral Fellows.   The awards, along with the titles of the projects are below.  Congrats all! Aaron J. Prussin at Virginia Tech, co-advisors Linsey Marr and Kyle Bibby (Pittsburg)  “Bacterial and viral microbiomes of daycare centers” Anne. A. Madden at University of Colorado, …

Article in @nytimes on Norm Pace’s lab’s work on microbial diversity in municipal water supplies

Very interesting article by Peter Andrey Smith: A Quest for Even Safer Drinking Water – NYTimes.com.  It tells the tale of Norm Pace and his lab’s field work to study the microbial diversity of municipal drinking water systems.  The work is part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s program on Microbiology of the Built Environment and …