Sloan Foundation-funded workshops at Healthy Buildings Europe 2017

Next week, the Lublin University of Technology in Lublin, Poland will host the Healthy Buildings Europe conference. Over 300 scientists, engineers, and professionals will gather to present and discuss building science. The Sloan Foundation is sponsoring workshops at the meeting to bring together leaders in the field and advance the state of the science. A …

New papers on Microbiology of the Built Environment, June 3, 2017

Microbes indoors DNA metabarcoding to assess indoor fungal communities: Electrostatic dust collectors and Illumina sequencing – Steffi Rocchi – Journal of Microbiological Methods ($39.95) Our study aimed to evaluate metabarcoding and bioinformatic analysis resulting from calibrated samples and samples collected by an electrostatic dust collector (EDC) in dwellings with no moisture problems. Thus, the fungal communities of …

Who are the microbes in your neighborhood? In your neighborhood? In your neighborhood?

Sorry for the headline here but when I saw this news story (British scientists survey infectious bacteria by having people walk outside in socks – The Washington Post). I just could not get Mr. Rogers’ “Who are the people in your neighborhood” out of my head. But with the “people” replaced by “microbes”. Why did this …

The microbiomes of built environments when the builder is not human

Here at microBEnet we have been trying to help build up the field of “microbiology of the built environment.” Understandably, a lot of the focus of this field has been on human built environments and humans in such built environments. I (and clearly many others) believe that we can learn a lot by expanding this to …

Ants as (Possible) Vectors of Bacteria in Hospital Environments

Not really sure what to think about this article:  Ants as Vectors of Bacteria in Hospital Environments. Published in the Journal of Microbiology Research and authored by Bruna Rafaela Machado Oliveira, Luciano Ferreira de Sousa, Raquel Chalá Soares, Thiago César Nascimento, Marcelo Silva Madureira, Jorge Luiz Fortuna. In a quick scan the science seems reasonable. …

Of possible interest: #PLOSOne paper on #microbiome sharing between children, livestock and household surfaces

Quick post here: Of possible interest: Microbiome sharing between children, livestock and household surfaces in western Kenya in PLOS One.  Abstract below The gut microbiome community structure and development are associated with several health outcomes in young children. To determine the household influences of gut microbiome structure, we assessed microbial sharing within households in western Kenya …

Quick post: Drosophila Genotype Influences Commensal Bacterial Levels in Lab Reared Flies

Just a quick post here.  This is an interesting paper on how genotype of Drosophila influences their microbiome. As a side story – I think flies could become an interesting and useful model for studying how the built environment (e.g., vials, cages, food, etc) influence microbiomes. Host genotype can influence the composition of the commensal …