New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, January 29, 2017

Microbes indoors Building-related symptoms are linked to the in vitro toxicity of indoor dust and airborne microbial propagules in schools: A cross-sectional study – JT Salin – Environmental Research ($41.95) We examined whether the in vitro toxicity of indoor samples from school buildings was associated with work-related health symptoms (building-related symptoms, BRS). Administrators of the Helsinki …

Future Proofing Law symposium at #UCDavis #futureproofinglaw #AI #algorithms #robots #CRISPR

This may be of interest to some here.  I made a Storify of the Tweets from the “Future Proofing Law” symposium that was at UC Davis yesterday and the day before.  There were multiple biotech. themed sessions and presentations as well as discussions of many topics connected to microBEnet in various ways such as open …

My thoughts as a relatively junior researcher working with established peers

A little over two years ago, I wrote a short piece in a military engineering magazine about the potential importance of the microbiome in the Department of Defense (DoD). Two months later, the head of the VA Rocky Mountain Mental Health Research Center, Dr. Lisa Brenner, contacted me and said she would like to start …

Of possible interest: Biosafety Design Initiative courses and more

Got pointed to this Biosafety Design Initiative on Twitter @phylogenomics This may be of interest – “eval of clean & controlled environmnts & design of space & infrastructr” https://t.co/5P8iDsVt2o — Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) January 23, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js It may be of interest to some. They have courses and other activities connected to microbes in the built …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, January 21, 2017

  Microbes in the house and office A survey of xerophilic Aspergillus from indoor environment, including descriptions of two new section Aspergillus species producing eurotium-like sexual states – Cobus M. Visagie – MycoKeys (OA) Xerophilic fungi grow at low water activity or low equilibrium relative humidity and are an important part of the indoor fungal …

Paper of possible interest: Microbial analysis of Heating systems’ surfaces 

Just a quick post – this may be of interest to some: An analysis of experimental investigation focused on microbial pollution of heated was carried out for heating systems installed in different types of buildings as residential houses and civil buildings. The results point on importance of maintenance and cleaning the heating systems for quality …

Humans as collectors and emitters of environmental microbes

As part of the Healthy Buildings 2015 America Conference, there was a technical session on Indoor Microbiome Research where we discussed strategies on, among other things, how to sample and analyze bioaerosols using modern high throughput sequencing techniques. In that workshop, we did a small exercise highlighting the potential for humans to transport microbes into …

What kind of DNA lingers on ATM keypads? Your food, your skin microbes…and (maybe) parasites

Amidst the November/December holiday chaos, myself and co-authors were proud to witness the publication of a neat new paper focused on ATM keypads in New York City. Yes, just like all other surfaces in the Built Environment, those ATM keypads are harboring lots of microbes and bits of orphaned DNA! This ATM keypad study was work that …