BioBE Preprint: Controlled Chamber COVID Study

New COVID Preprint out from BioBE: Preprint Link: https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-940891/v1 We recruited 11 participants that were diagnosed with COVID-19 and studied each for 3 days in a controlled chamber with multiple independent variables. We collected more than 2500 biological samples, particulates, and CO2 in near field (1.2 m) and far field (3.5 m) per each trial. Each …

Wanted: Workers for the COVID19 Mass Testing Operations for UC Davis and Healthy Davis Together 

Wanted: Workers for the COVID19 Mass Testing Operations for UC Davis and Healthy Davis Together  Looking for a temporary job in the Davis/Sacramento area and want to help with COVID19 testing? See below. Needed right now “Mass Screening Kiosk Workers” to assist with operations at the site where people come in to provide saliva samples …

Open Postdoc Position at University of Oregon BioBE

The Biology and the Built Environment Center (BioBE) is currently seeking a post-doc to investigate fundamental questions surrounding the role of microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi archaea, and protists) in the built environment and in relation to human health outcomes. Learn more and apply here. (https://careers.uoregon.edu/en-us/job/527294/post-doctoral-scholar-in-microbial-ecology)

Dust may be an efficient matrix for environmental monitoring of SARS-CoV-2

A new viral disease surveillance tool: Indoor dust as a matrix for surveillance of COVID-19, published in mSystems. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, large scale monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 has helped to prevent spread and inform public health decisions. This has largely been done through individual sampling (ie nasal and saliva sample collection) and through environmental surveillance …

Wanted – science driven guidelines for deciding if and how to keep open / reopen schools re: #COVID19

I am compiling some materials on science driven guidelines for how to decide if and how to keep open and/or reopen schools in the face of COVID19. Here are some I have compiled that I seem to be useful.  I would love other examples. (Updated 12/21 at 3 PM) National Academy of Sciences Reopening K-12 …

#COVID19 Preprint Journal Club: “Wastewater Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 as a Predictive Metric of Positivity Rate for a Major Metropolis”

More wastewater sampling work, “Wastewater Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 as a Predictive Metric of Positivity Rate for a Major Metropolis“.  This one is a larger-scale study in a big city that found wastewater spikes in SARS-CoV-2 to present clinical positives by 2 weeks which is a huge lead time and of major significance for getting a …

#COVID-19 Journal Club: “The wastewater microbiome: A novel insight for COVID-19 surveillance”

This is a bit more up our alley!  “The wastewater microbiome: A novel insight for COVID-19 surveillance” doesn’t look directly at the virus but at the changes in the wastewater microbiome that might proceed detection of SARS-CoV-2.  The authors claim to observe such changes which could potentially be really useful.  We already know that wastewater …

#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 …