New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, June 3, 2017

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 …

Compiling a list of Microbiology of the Built Environment related presentations at ASMicrobe17

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. …

Genomes of eight bacteria from the built environment

We just published an extended genome report from eight bacteria that were sequenced as part of the “Built Environment Reference Genome” (BERG) project. BERG is a microBEnet run effort to increase the number of reference genomes in the Built Environment (BE) by offering free genome sequencing to a number of labs working in the field. …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, December 24, 2016

Microbes and buildings Bacterial Hygromorphs: Experiments into the integration of soft technologies into building skins – ACADIA 2016: Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture – Carolina Ramirez-Figueroa – Newcastle University (OA) The last few years has seen an increase in the interest to bring living systems into the process of design. Work with living systems, nonetheless, presents …

The “Koala Poop Microbiome” Class at UC Davis

You know sometimes you use a working title for something for long enough that it becomes the title? Like “Snakes on a Plane”.  That’s what happened in this case,  we also meant to come up with a name for this class… never did and so the official name at the registrar is “Koala Poop”.  Awesome. …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, October 15, 2016

Microbes indoors Review: Microorganisms in Confined Habitats: Microbial Monitoring and Control of Intensive Care Units, Operating Rooms, Cleanrooms and the International Space Station – Maximilian Mora – Frontiers in Microbiology (OA) Indoor environments, where people spend most of their time, are characterized by a specific microbial community, the indoor microbiome. Most indoor environments are connected to …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, June 18, 2016

Microbes and disinfection Antibacterial Activity of Blue Light against Nosocomial Wound Pathogens Growing Planktonically and as Mature Biofilms – Fenella D. Halstead – Applied and Environmental Microbiology (OA) (…) Here we report the findings of a multicenter in vitro study performed to assess the antimicrobial activity of 400-nm blue light against bacteria in both planktonic and biofilm …

Science Friday on New Superbugs

As posted in this blog last week, an article was published in the ASM Journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy on May 26 that describes the first discovery in the United States of mcr-1 gene, responsible for colistin resistance, in E. coli in a patient with a urinary tract infection. Colistin is considered an antibiotic of last resort because, …

Microbiology of the Built Environment: Day 2

Here’s my report from Day 2 of the Microbiology of the Built Environment Conference in Boulder… the 5th annual and last of its kind!  Storify of the tweets from the day below. The opening talk on Day 2 was by Martin Taubel from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland, “Of house dust and …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, May 13, 2016

Today was an exciting day in the microbiology world with the launch of the White House OSTP National Microbiome Initiative in Washington, where the Who Is Who of microbiome research was gathered. Too bad I was not there! But I’ve compiled another set of nice papers and news articles on the microbiology of the built environment. Microbes in the City …