Skin Microbiome at the Roller Derby

Not surprisingly, the skin microbiome changes accordingly with human contact, according to this study found through PeerJ. Researchers aimed to study a high contact sport and see how the skin microbiome changes before and after a game. They used roller derby, and as anyone who has watched the movie Whip it! will know, there is a …

Discussion of surface sampling methods in the built environment (video) [Updated w/ notes]

Researchers from the University of Oregon, UC Berkeley, Cornell, and Texas looking at bacterial and fungal communities in the built environment had a great video discussion on our methods for surface sampling. Watch the video on YouTube Notes on the discussion and equipment used by each group should be coming soon. Thanks again to everyone …

From the ASM mBio blog mBiosphere: Strep pneumoniae survival on surfaces

The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is really doing a great job of moving into new forms of science communication.  For example, ASM has a relatively new journal mBIO that is sort of akin to PLoS One – it is an open access and relatively rapid publication journal.  And mBIO is starting to take off. …

NIST press release on standards for spore recovery from indoor surfaces; note paper not #OpenAccess #microBEnet

A recent press release from NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) is of some interest:NIST Seeks Improved Recovery of Samples from Biohazard Events.  In the press release they discuss a new paper in (AEM) Applied and Environmental Microbiology from NIST: Parameters Affecting Spore Recovery from Wipes Used in Biological Surface Sampling. Alas, the paper …