Well, here is another benefit of automated Google Scholar searches. I think it is unlikely I would have found these new papers without such searches but these are fascinating and directly relevant to many aspects of work we are doing on Project MERCCURI. A series of papers on microbial ecolog and space travel in the …
Back in May, I had the pleasure of attending a talk at ASM 2014 by Didier Raoult on the the importance of culturomics. At one point in the talk he mentioned that they just came out with a paper that showed that they could get anaerobes to grow in the presence of oxygen if you …
Almost exactly a year ago we finally wrapped up our undergraduate project focusing on sequencing and assembling reference genomes from the built environment. This project aimed to take undergrads through every step from starting with a swab to ending with a published genome announcement and data in NCBI. Over the course of the work, we …
We are organizing a workshop to catalyze the study of the microbiology of built environments where animals live. The workshop is scheduled for October 7th and 8th at UC Davis. Our aim is to bring together experts in animal health, building science and microbiology to discuss why these systems are worthy of study and how research in this …
With the recent popularity of “green” buildings, we have to wonder how these new materials affect the microbes in the built environment. This 2010 paper from researchers at the University of Texas examines fungal growth in such materials. The study involved artificially and naturally inoculating four green building materials and their non-green counterparts with Aspergillus niger, as well as …
Quick post here on a hospital water sampling study in Italy that found much higher levels of potentially pathogenic bacteria (e.g. Legionella) in aerators than in the rest of the plumbing system. Reading this gives a really good sense of how complicated it is to maintain a sufficiently sterile water distribution system for immunocompromised patients …
While recent studies of the microbiology of the built environment (MoBE) have greatly increased our understanding of microbial community structure and composition on surfaces and in air within the spaces in which we live and work, most have been driven and led primarily by microbiologists with the building science community playing a supporting role. Perhaps as …
Just came across this review from Sharpe et al. at the University of Exeter, UK; “Modifiable factors governing indoor fungal diversity and risk of asthma”. I’ve just skimmed it so far, but it seems to be a good starting place for getting a handle on this topic. I like the emphasis on “modifiable factors”, implying …
We are all quite familiar with the age-old problem: many times, the diagnosis of the microbial agent responsible for an infection takes days. In the best of cases, a broad spectrum antibiotic is prescribed while doctors await lab results, which contributes to the growing problem of antibiotic resistance. In the worst cases, the patient does …
These are just awesome: 4 Ventilation Quotes That Will Rock Your IAQ World. Maybe they are familiar to people who work on indoor air quality but I had never heard them . Thanks to the Energy Vanguard Blog for posting these. I particularly like “If there is a pile of manure in a space, do not try …