Microbes in the clinic Glove Contamination during Endodontic Treatment Is One of the Sources of Nosocomial Endodontic Propionibacterium acnes Infections – Sadia Ambreen Niazi – Journal of Endodontics ($35.95) The opportunistic Propionibacterium acnes recovered frequently from failed endodontic treatments might be the result of nosocomial endodontic infections. The study was aimed to determine if gloves …
Microbes in the city Also see this blog post earlier this week: Urban Transit System Microbial Communities Differ by Surface Type and Interaction with Humans and the Environment – Tiffany Hsu – mSystems (OA) Public transit systems are ideal for studying the urban microbiome and interindividual community transfer. In this study, we used 16S amplicon and …
“Don’t tell me what you found.” “Oh my gosh it must be disgusting!” “Can people transfer vaginal microbes to each other?” These are some of the questions we’ve gotten from subway riders and press. Despite these reactions, our study on the Boston subway system is now out on MSystems! Recently, there has been a rise …
Microbes and citizen science Video: Citizen Science and Mapping the Microbiome – Eric J. Topol interviews Jessica Richman – Medscape (OA) In this One-on-One, Medscape editor-in-chief Eric Topol talks with Jessica Richman about the value of citizen science as well as her company, uBiome, which provides microbiome analyses to consumers and plans to begin providing …
Microbes in the house Fungal and bacterial growth in floor dust at elevated relative humidity levels — Karen C. Dannemiller — Indoor Air ($6 to rent, $38 to own) Under sustained, elevated building moisture conditions, bacterial and fungal growth occurs. The goal of this study was to characterize microbial growth in floor dust at variable …
Back in September 2014 I was invited to write a book chapter on citizen science in microbiology. After several iterations of the book, the chapter, and the licensing agreement here is the final version. The book came out yesterday, here’s a link to the entire book on Amazon (“The Rightful Place of Science: Citizen Science“) …
Here’s the report from Day 1 of the 5th annual Microbiology of the Built Environment meeting in Boulder, CO. Following my summary of the talks is a Storify of all the tweets from the day. The first talk of the day was by Ulla Haverinen-Shaughnessy from the University of Eastern Finland whose talk was entitled …
microBE.net is an awesome name, so I wasn’t that surprised to find that the CDC has it’s own MicrobeNet that they launched in 2013. MicrobeNet is a free online curated database of emerging bacteria and fungi that aims to improve reference diagnostics and pathogen identification. The database includes genetic sequence data (16S rRNA), biochemical data, morphological characteristics and antibiotic resistance profiles for about 2,400 species, as well …
Recent papers on microbes of the built environment. Microbes in the hospital Prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus from nares and hands on healthcare professionals in a Portuguese Hospital – Ana Castro – Journal of Applied Microbiology ($6 to rent, $38 to own) The main goal was to estimate the prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus on hands and …
Happy Mother’s Day! Here are your new papers on microbes of the built environment. Microbes in the house Assessment of Bacterial Communities in Thirteen Species of Laboratory-Cultured Domestic Mites (Acari: Acaridida) – Jan Hubert – Journal of Economic Entomology (WTH $39 for 1 day) House dust mites (HDMs) and stored-product mites (SPMs) of various species …