MRSA found in wastewater treatment plants

Just a short post here about a new study published in Environmental Health Perspectives “Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Detected at Four U.S. Wastewater Treatment Plants” Unlike some of the stories we rag on about potential pathogens in the built environment (things like “we found E. coli!”), there is a real concern about finding MRSA in …

Hurricane Sandy and the Microbiology of the Built Environment: Guest Post by James Scott.

(The following is a guest post by James Scott, from the University of Toronto) The receding waters of hurricane Sandy left a trail of destruction along the eastern seaboard of North America – demolishing homes and businesses, flooding neighborhoods and transportation systems, disrupting electricity and water supplies. The havoc wrought by Sandy poignantly affirms the brutal …

Videos from QIIME/VAMPS Workshop in Boulder – Huse, Knight, Sogin, Caporaso, and Wendel

For a summary and list of talks from the QIMME/VAMPS Workshop, see here.   Below are the various presentation videos that I recorded at the meeting.     Mitch Sogin talks about the capabilities of VAMPS: Rob Knight talks about the capabilities of QIIME: Sue Huse discusses best practices in marker gene analysis (must-see for new …

New Sloan-funded program in microbiology of the built environment: Curtis Huttenhower, public transit associated microbes

The last of the new Sloan grants is a project called “Transmission and alteration of the human microbiome by urban public transportation systems” which is being managed by Curtis Huttenhower at the Harvard Public School of Health, along with his Co-PI, Jack Spengler. Detailed description below:

People Behind the Science Interviews: James Scott, testing methods for building materials

Next in our “People Behind the Science” series is an interview with James Scott from the University of Toronto. Dr. Scott has recently received a Sloan grant to work on “Improved Testing Methods for Common Building Materials”. In this interview he talks about this project and his interest in the field. Transcript of video:

Websites for the Hospital Microbiome Project and the Home Microbiome Project

I recently posted here about one of the new Sloan-funded projects in the microbiology of the built environment, the “Hospital Microbiome Project”.  One thing I didn’t mention is that they already have some interesting preliminary results from the construction phase of the project that are worth checking out. Jack Gilbert has also been involved in …

Summary and talks from QIIME/VAMPS Workshop, October 2013 in Boulder

(Note:  This post will be regularly updated with links to speaker slides and videos of some presentations as that information becomes available) The two-day microBEnet sponsored QIIME/VAMPS workshop just wrapped up yesterday.  The goal of this conference was to bring the developers of QIIME and VAMPS together with users from the microbiology of the built …

New Sloan-funded program in microbiology of built environment: James Scott, To design improved testing methods for common building materials

Another one of the Sloan-funded projects from the RFP held this year is being managed by James Scott from the University of Toronto.  It’s entitled “To design improved testing methods for common building materials”.  The Co-PIs on the project are Eric Savory (University of Western Ontario), Richard Summerbell (Sporometrics Inc.), and John Pogacar (Anderson Building …

Save the Date: Annual Sloan Microbiology of the Built Environment Meeting will be May 22-24 2013 in Boulder, CO

The dates of May 22-24th were set today at the end of the VAMPS/QIIME workshop in Boulder (more about that later). The dates have been choose to coordinate with ASM 2013, which is in Denver from May 18-21st.  Anyone attending ASM should just be able to take a shuttle up to Boulder for the Sloan …