You can download the database of over 360 publications that report characteristics of the indoor environment along with the microbes found in the studies. Each publication is entered as a record and includes citation, abstract, keywords, organisms, substrates, and environmental conditions as reported by the authors. The database in MS Access format is searchable for …
In researching previous studies conducted on microbes in space for Project MERCURRI, I ran across an interesting microbiology diversity study done on European Spacecraft-Associated (ESA) clean rooms in the Herschel Space Observatory. Historically, clean rooms are supposedly “sterile” environments that are used for the building and maintenance of spacecrafts, as directed by the UN’s Outer Space planetary …
We’ve just added a new link on our resources page — a whole lot of lectures by Keith Redway of the University of Westminister. The list includes the following: Recombinant DNA Technology & GM (3BIO7M4, 3BIO7X1) Laboratory Management & Safety (3GAM405) Medical Microbiology (3MED666) History of Microbiology Medically important bacteria Transfer of antibiotic resistance – …
We’ve talked in the past about uses for bacteria to sense and repair concrete (e.g. here and here) but this podcast is the first time I’ve heard the idea of using bacteria as pure sensors. In the words of the podcast summary “scientists might be able to develop a bacterial early warning system for our …
We’ve recently received an award from the Sloan Foundation to examine the mycobiota from paired house dust and infant fecal samples collected in the first year of life. The main purpose of the study is to examine how the immediate environment (house dust) may shape the gut mycobiota of infants and affect immune activation and …
As we have ben writing about here, we are planning to do some microbial sampling of the International Space Station as part of our Project MERCURRI. Thus I read with great interest the following headline this morning: ISS Supply Ship Opens Hatch After ‘Bacteria’ Delay | World | RIA Novosti. Uh oh. Seems that some mold …
Interesting new paper out from the J. Craig Venter Institute. The paper is in PNAS: Candidate phylum TM6 genome recovered from a hospital sink biofilm provides genomic insights into this uncultivated phylum. Thankfully it was published under the PNAS Open Access option so anyone / everyone has access to the paper. In the paper the authors …
Does heavy drinking affect the bacteria in your living room air? I don’t know, but some work I saw at ASM suggests that it might. At the poster session on Day 3, Valdis Krumins from Rutgers had a poster reporting efforts to understand the effect on airborne bacterial concentrations (or, at least, their ribosomal 16S …
In their just published paper in Environmental Science & Technology, “Tetracycline Resistance and Class 1 Integron Genes Associated with Indoor and Outdoor Aerosols,” Alison L. Ling, Norman R. Pace, Mark T. Hernandez, and Timothy M. LaPara have found that genes escape the indoor environment and can be found 2 km away. The abstract can be …
Interesting story here: Mmegi Online :: US embassy refuses to name water bacteria. Apparently the US Embassy in Botswana does regular water testing there (and elsewhere around the world). And the testing identified some issues with the water recently so they sent out a notice to their employees to boil the water. But when asked to provide …