#COVID19 Journal Club “Evidence of Long-Distance Droplet Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Direct Air Flow in a Restaurant in Korea”

This one has been getting a lot of popular media attention… and really the title says it all “Evidence of Long-Distance Droplet Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by Direct Air Flow in a Restaurant in Korea”.  This study describes a transmission that took place at over 20 feet in only 5 minutes… both problematic considering the standard …

Job Posting: Postdoc at Virginia Tech “Microbial Biodiversity in Trans-Atlantic Dust Plumes”

Thanks to Linsey Marr for passing this along.  Job description below: Postdoctoral Associate Position Microbial Biodiversity in Trans-Atlantic Dust Plumes Position Description: We invite applications for a three-year NASA funded postdoctoral research position in a multi-institutional and highly interdisciplinary research project. The project goal is to integrate multiplatform satellite and ground observations, as well as …

#COVID19 Preprint Journal Club: “Viable SARS-CoV-2 in the air of a hospital room with COVID-19 patients”

I missed blogging about this important preprint when it came out for some reason. “Viable SARS-CoV-2 in the air of a hospital room with COVID-19 patients“.   I’ve talked in the past about how many of the environmental sampling studies come out are only looking at SARS-CoV-2 RNA and not viable virus.   Here’s a nice …

#COVID19 Preprint Journal Club “Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by inhalation of respiratory aerosol in the Skagit Valley Chorale superspreading event”

Another paper highlighting the importance of the aerosols in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  This one is by a number of awesome folks in the field including Shelly Miller and Linsey Marr who have been some of the leading voices in understanding the airborne/aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2.  Most people have probably heard of “that choir event …

#COVID19 Preprint Journal Club “Evidence for probable aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a poorly ventilated restaurant”

(h/t to Linsey Marr for posting about this on Twitter) Sometimes I have to double check to make sure I don’t post about the same article twice.   I posted recently about an article describing transmission in a restaurant in Guangzhou, China.  This new article, “Evidence for probable aerosol transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in a poorly ventilated …

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 …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, August 27, 2016

Microbes found in ambulances Not surprisingly, bacteria could be detected after swabbing surfaces in ambulances. Detection and characterization of surface microbial contamination in emergency ambulances – Aketza Varona-Barquin – American Journal of Infection Control ($35.95) A cross-sectional study was performed in 10 emergency basic life support ambulances operating in Bilbao, Spain, to assess surface bacterial …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, August 20, 2016

Microbes indoors Effects of Microbial Aerosol in Poultry House on Meat Ducks’ Immune Function – Guanliu Yu – Frontiers in Microbiology (OA) The aim of this study was to evaluate effects of microbial aerosols on immune function of ducks and shed light on the establishment of microbial aerosol concentration standards for poultry. A total of 1800 …

New papers on microbiology of the built environment, April 25, 2016

Recent papers about microbes and the built environment: Microbes in the house Fungal and Bacterial Communities in Indoor Dust Follow Different Environmental Determinants – Fabian Weikl – PLOS ONE (OA) (…) we wanted to identify key environmental determinants for the house dust microbiome from an existing collection of spatially (area of Munich, Germany) and temporally (301 days) distributed …