BRIK: A Useful Link to Architecture Research – hosted by the American Institute of Architects

Building Information Research Knowldgebase – BRIK is a useful site for all kinds of architecture-oriented research. Here’s a link to the database of built environment research hosted by AIA with NIBS: http://www.brikbase.org/. Self-described as “your information portal to professionally reviewed research in the built environment for professionals by professionals” Here is an example of a …

Sloan Foundation’s Indoor Environment Symposium at Indoor Air 2014

Sloan Symposium at Indoor Air 2014 The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Program on Microbiology of the Built Environment has awarded a grant to Indoor Air 2014, the 13th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate, to be held in Hong Kong from July 7-12, 2014. Paraphrasing a quote on the conference web site from …

Recently released funding opportunity from the Department of Defense

The Department of Defense, Defense Medical Research and Development Program (DMRDP), Military Infectious Diseases Research Program (MIDRP) and Joint Program Committee 2 (JPC-2) has recently announced a funding opportunity: Military Infectious Diseases Clinical Trial Award (MID-CTA). Detailed descriptions of the funding opportunity, evaluation criteria, and submission requirements can be found in the Program Announcement. The …

New funding opportunity in its Microbiology of the Built Environment (MoBE) program.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has created a new funding opportunity in its Microbiology of the Built Environment (MoBE) program. The Foundation seeks to further the development of talented early stage Ph.D. scientists and engineers by establishing the Microbiology of the Built Environment (MoBE) Postdoctoral Fellowship program. The program will provide support for postdoctoral researchers …

“…antibiotic resistance genes may be transported via aerosols on local scales”

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 …

Asthma: pacifiers, plasticizers, and microbes

After some off-line dialogue related to my “Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?” blog post, I have decided to post a separate comment regarding the hygiene hypothesis, mentioned in the introduction, and the plasticizer hypothesis, emphasized by some off-line correspondents. What is clear is that in the modern, human-occupied indoor environment, there are microbes …

Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?

A story on the May 6th NPR program, Morning Edition, “Parents’ Saliva On Pacifiers Could Ward Off Baby’s Allergies” features a focus on the human microbiome, partental behavior and babies’ allergies. “That word “microbiome” – describing the collection of bacteria that live in and on our bodies – keeps popping up. This time, researchers say …