So this is the culmination of a huge amount of work by a large number of folks. The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) just released a new report “Microbiomes of the Built Environment: A Research Agenda for Indoor Microbiology, Human Health, and Buildings”. This report was requested by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the National …
When I first saw the headline on this I groaned a little, thinking this was some completely bogus type of project. But actually, upon reading about it in more detail it sounds like a really good public engagement project involving the eclipse, students, space, and microbes. The article: Most-watched eclipse in history could answer the …
What does a robin have to do with fighting the next pandemic. No, this is not about weird viruses in birds (though I am sure there are some). This is about a Field Guide to the Microbes. I am writing about this topic because I got pointed to a interesting blog post by a tweet …
Came across this study today “Airborne Pathogens inside Automobiles for Domestic Use: Assessing In-Car Air Decontamination Devices Using Staphylococcus aureus as the Challenge Bacterium”. What struck me from the start was the Abstract which begins: Family cars represent ∼74% of the yearly global output of motorized vehicles. With a life expectancy of ∼8 decades in …
Microbes indoors DNA metabarcoding to assess indoor fungal communities: Electrostatic dust collectors and Illumina sequencing – Steffi Rocchi – Journal of Microbiological Methods ($39.95) Our study aimed to evaluate metabarcoding and bioinformatic analysis resulting from calibrated samples and samples collected by an electrostatic dust collector (EDC) in dwellings with no moisture problems. Thus, the fungal communities of …
I am compiling information about presentations related to MoBE topics at the ASM Microbe 2017 meeting. This may be useful to those attending the meeting in selecting where to go and also to those outside who might be interested presentations on MoBE topics at this meeting. If anyone knows of others, please let me know. …
Just a quick post here about an upcoming anvi’o workshop at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI). While I’ve never used anvi’o myself, I know that people rave about it and the visualizations it produces look really cool. It can be used with metagenomic, genomic, and transcriptomic data. Information below copied from the workshop website. …
Just testing a new feature here where we are trying to have posts for papers on key topics. Sattar SA, Zargar B, Wright KE, Rubino JR, Ijaz MK. 2017. Airborne pathogens inside automobiles for domestic use: assessing in-car air decontamination devices using Staphylococcus aureus as the challenge bacterium. Appl Environ Microbiol 83:e00258-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00258-17. ABSTRACT Family …
The disease-causing organisms Burkholderia multivorans, B. cepacia, genomovars of the B. cepacia complex (BCC), as well as an unclassified species of Burkholderia, and its relatives Ralstonia pickettii and R. insidiosa account for 60% of the bacterial isolates obtained from the filtrated water system on board the International Space Station (ISS). Members of these genera can …
Federico Lauro, Chris Mason and I (and a few others by now) are looking for editors for a Frontiers Special Topic on Citizen Science in Microbiology. It is important to us that we assemble a diverse panel of editors before we start inviting submissions! We are especially interested in making sure that women and people …