#COVID-19 Preprint Journal Club: “Tracking SARS-CoV-2 RNA through the wastewater treatment process”

Getting harder to keep up with all the wastewater articles related to SARS-CoV-2.  It’s becoming more and more common as a method of environmental surveillance for the virus.  And yes, this article, Tracking SARS-CoV-2 RNA through the wastewater treatment process,  came out a month ago… I’ve been too busy working on the pandemic to blog …

#COVID19 Journal Club: “Community Outbreak Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Among Bus Riders in Eastern China”

Here’s an article about a superspreader event… which of course falls under the rubric of the microbiology of the built environment, because all these large transmission events happen indoors!  “Community Outbreak Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Among Bus Riders in Eastern China” describes… well like it says in the title.  Good evidence for airborne spread here, …

#COVID19 Journal Club “First detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater in North America: A study in Louisiana, USA”

More wastewater surveillance coming out.  Not sure about the title on this one since there’s been a number of publications on wastewater detection of SARS-CoV-2 in the US but maybe this title was correct when they submitted this paper “First detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater in North America: A study in Louisiana, USA“.  Pretty …

Online course: Microbiomes and their Impact on Viral Infections

Looks like a potentially interesting course… certainly topical!  Information below, website here.   The study of the microbiome is one of the most promising scientific and medical revolutions in recent times. It is now clear that changes in the microbiome composition (referred to as dysbiosis) are major drivers to several human diseases and public health …

#COVID19 Journal Club: “Air and Environmental Contamination Caused by COVID-19 Patients: a Multi-Center Study”

Very nice and cleanly done study here, “Air and Environmental Contamination Caused by COVID-19 Patients: a Multi-Center Study” is a very straightforward look at the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in a healthcare setting… without aerosol generating procedures being part of the pictures.  They looked at the air (all negative) and a bunch of surfaces (27% positive …

#COVID19 Journal Club: “The effect of temperature on persistence of SARS-CoV-2 on common surfaces”

Here’s the kind of article that we’ve been asking for since March… looking at the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 on various surfaces (including paper money) under various conditions.  I was excited when I saw the title and some of the media buzz about this paper.  But then I looked a bit deeper.  So “The effect of …

#COVID19 Journal Club: “Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in Water and Wastewater”

Another wastewater study… but looking at the very important question of whether infectious virus can be detected in the waste stream.  Most wastewater studies to date have only looked at viral RNA.  The not-too-surprising punchline is that infectious virus dies out long before the RNA signal is degraded.  This kind of information we be useful …

#COVID19 Journal Club: “Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 During Long Flight”

I took a break from blogging to help start up the mass asymptomatic testing program for SARS-CoV-2 at UC Davis but now I’m working through the backlog of relevant papers to post about. I’ve posted a lot so far about restaurants, hospitals, and wastewater sampling…. but to my knowledge this is the first published description …

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 …

Job posting: Senior Scientist in Microbiome Sciences at PNNL

Got this job posting for a Senior Scientist in Microbiome Sciences at PNNL.   Job Description The Biological Systems Science Group within the Biological Sciences Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking a senior scientist who will bring an established and vigorous independent research program in microbiome sciences (broadly defined) to the highly …