An informative glimpse into the drug factory microbiome: Which bugs coexist with our drugs? The story behind the paper

The story behind: Toward the Drug Factory Microbiome: Microbial Community Variations in Antibiotic-Producing Clean Rooms (OMICS. 2018 Feb;22(2):133-144. doi: 10.1089/omi.2017.0091.) PMID: 28873001 [Preprint] It was in 2013, on my return to Cairo University after a couple of years as a visiting scientist at UCSD, that I met Amal for the first time. Amal was a fresh master’s …

Paper of possible interest: KatharoSeq Enables High-Throughput Microbiome Analysis from Low-Biomass Samples

This may be of interest to people out there.  Source: KatharoSeq Enables High-Throughput Microbiome Analysis from Low-Biomass Samples | mSystems Abstract: Microbiome analyses of low-biomass samples are challenging because of contamination and inefficiencies, leading many investigators to employ low-throughput methods with minimal controls. We developed a new automated protocol, KatharoSeq (from the Greek katharos [clean]), …

Microbiomes in the built environment go 3D #forensics

Article OK this new paper is pretty cool: Creating a 3D microbial and chemical snapshot of a human habitat | Scientific Reports.  Abstract: One of the goals of forensic science is to identify individuals and their lifestyle by analyzing the trace signatures left behind in built environments. Here, microbiome and metabolomic methods were used to …

Our #ISS Microbiome Paper in PeerJ

So a number of years ago our lab embarked on Project MERCCURI (let’s not talk about the tortured acronym).  This complex and citizen science-based collaboration (website here) has been a fascinating journey.  It’s ranged from getting to watch a rocket launch in Florida, to discovering/describing a new bacterial species, to our most recent publication… the …

Incorporating quantity into microbiome analysis

In addition to thinking about appropriate statistical analyses given the compositional nature of microbiome data sets (see the previous post here), there is a related but different issue that’s back on my mind – the benefit that quantitative information would bring to research questions. My engineering colleagues in the built environment world have consistently reminded …

Nice title, nice paper: Microbiome Datasets Are Compositional: And This Is Not Optional 

This seems like it is a must read for anyone working on microbiomes: Frontiers | Microbiome Datasets Are Compositional: And This Is Not Optional | Microbiology Gloor GB, Macklaim JM, Pawlowsky-Glahn V and Egozcue JJ (2017) Microbiome Datasets Are Compositional: And This Is Not Optional. Front. Microbiol. 8:2224. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2017.02224 Summary from the paper: Datasets …

Postdoctoral positions in engineering the microbiome – Cornell University

The Brito Lab at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY works in the area of systems biology of the human microbiome. We are looking for talented postdocs to fill two open positions for postdoctoral researchers interested in investigating mechanistic linkages between microbes and human health outcomes. Postdoctoral candidates can have an experimental or computational background, or both. One of …

No – not all dogs are good for your microbiome … 

Epidemiological and other studies have shown that, on average, having a dog is correlated to some possible health benefits (e.g., see this).  And some studies have further suggested that this might be connected to “the microbiome” in that having a dog might change the microbiome of one’s surroundings and that this in turn might contribute …

BMC Infectious Diseases soliciting papers for special issue on “The airborne microbiome – implications for aerosol transmission and infection control”

Of potential interest: BMC Infectious Diseases | The airborne microbiome – implications for aerosol transmission and infection control From the site Edited by Julian Tang, University Hospitals Of Leicester NHS Trust, UK & Yuguo Li, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Many infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, whooping cough, Aspergillus and other fungal infections, human and avian influenza, measles, chickenpox, and some …

Panel discussion on 9/11 on NAS “Microbiomes of the Built Environment” report 

Recently we wrote about a new NAS report: NAS Study released: #MOBEstudy “Microbiomes of the Built Environment: A Research Agenda for Indoor Microbiology, Human Health, and Buildings” I am writing here to share that there will be a panel discussion on September 11 about this report. People can attend in person or online. From the email …