New COVID Preprint out from BioBE: Preprint Link: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-940891/v1 We recruited 11 participants that were diagnosed with COVID-19 and studied each for 3 days in a controlled chamber with multiple independent variables. We collected more than 2500 biological samples, particulates, and CO2 in near field (1.2 m) and far field (3.5 m) per each trial. Each …
A new New York Times article of interest on on the new coronavirus and how long it survives on surfaces and in the air. Article by Apporva Mandavilli with comments from lead author of a new paper on the topic Dr. Vincent Munster and also Dr. Linsey Marr and Dr. Jeffrey Shaman. A new study could have …
(updated 4/7/20 with revised preprint and publication information) So late last week, the folks at the BioBE Center at the University of Oregon contacted us wanting to write a review of built environment considerations related to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. We worked furiously on it for a couple of days and through the …
So this work is a spinoff of a big project that we were involved in (but almost all of the work was done by Amy Pruden’s lab at Virginia Tech). In the larger project, they examined the genomes of over 100 clinical isolates of Legionella pneumophila, as well as 10 clinical isolates from patients during …
So this was a very interesting paper to be involved in. On the one hand all our lab really did was to facilitate some genome sequencing and help with the assemblies, validation of those assemblies, and some genomics work. Standard fare for the lab. But… these were over 100 Legionella pneumophila isolates collected from either …
Register Here Please join the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on August 14th from 11:00am-12:30pm EDT for the release of the report, Management of Legionella in Water Systems. The report examines what is known about Legionella occurrence in water systems, and makes recommendations for managing bacterial growth in these environments in order …
Completely fascinating, and a wee bit terrifying new paper worth a read:: Ecological Analyses of Mycobacteria in Showerhead Biofilms and Their Relevance to Human Health Abstract: Bacteria within the genus Mycobacterium can be abundant in showerheads, and the inhalation of aerosolized mycobacteria while showering has been implicated as a mode of transmission in nontuberculous mycobacterial …
This article may be of interest – especially to people in my area of the world (i.e., the Central Valley in CA). Experts say a drier climate means more dust storms, which carry the fungus that causes the disease. New laws and money address the issue. Is that enough? Source: With Climate Change, Valley Fever …
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 …
Backyard chicken coops are on the rise and in many ways that is a good thing. However, one negative with this is that some chickens can carry various microbes that can make people sick and sometimes those microbes get to people and make them sick. CNN has a new story on the topic that may …