FlintWaterStudy Research Fundraiser on GoFundMe #BuiltEnvironment #microBEnet

This seems like an incredibly worthy cause: Source: FlintWaterStudy Research Fundraiser by Siddhartha Roy – GoFundMe In addition it is directly connected to the mission of microBEnet in that this is a fundraiser for the work of Marc Edwards, He is a professor at Virginia Tech and one of the heroes of the Flint Water …

Near perfect balance in a microbiome paper – hopeful yet no hype: The microbiome of the built environment and mental health

Source: The microbiome of the built environment and mental health | Microbiome | Full Text Andrew J. Hoisington, Lisa A. Brenner, Kerry A. Kinney, Teodor T. Postolache and Christopher A. Lowry When I saw the title of this I cringed a bit, worried that this paper would be overselling what we know about the microbiome and …

Archived Newsletter September 2013

Welcome to microBEnet News September 2013  MicroBEnet Blogs A brief summary of the recent topics posted on microBE.net Each issue we give a brief summary of the topics discussed in our blog over the last month.  Be sure to check it out here.     This was a relatively quiet month for the blog. We started off …

Archived Newsletter April 2014

MicroBEnet Blogs A summary of the recent topics posted on microBE.net As usual, our blog posts spanned a wide range of topics relevant to the microbiology of the built environment, ranging from kitchens to space stations. Featured overview: Project MERCCURI Project MERCCURI (#spacemicrobes) set to launch this Sunday morning Educator Guide for Project MERCCURI (#spacemicrobes) …

Gut Check: The Microbiome Game

What is it? Gut Check is a game for 2-4 players where each player attempts to develop a healthy microbiome while interfering with the microbiomes of their opponents.   Give your friends the plague, botulism and more!  Go to work sick to get rid of a pathogen, take some probiotics, or have some lasagna (if you …

Archived Newsletter October 2014

MicroBEnet Blogs A summary of the recent topics posted on microBE.net   General and News: Water damaged child care building closed for mold abatement Open Source Building Science Sensors Comparing the new 16S rRNA V4 and ITS primers to the old primers-RESULTS! “The Dirt on Antimicrobials” Nicholas Obsborne and Richard Sharpe on Moldy homes, ventilation, …

microbiology of the Built Environment network (#microBEnet) 10/14 roundup and newsletter

We publish a newsletter every month here at microBEnet.  And I thought it would be good to also publish to the blog the various summaries and roundups from the newsletter.  Past newsletters are archived here.  Here are some of the highlights from this latest newsletter. MicroBEnet Blogs A summary of the recent topics posted on microBE.net …

Manipulation of the “drinking water microbiome” may be possible

A quick post here on something that’s about as close to my pet topic of “probiotics for buildings” as I’ve ever seen.  This group works on wastewater treatment, starting with the fact that a lot of bacteria makes it from the filtration process into drinking water.  They studied the “drinking water microbiome” in a treatment …

New probiotic bacteria shows promise for use in shellfish aquaculture

We’ve talked here in the past about the idea of probiotics for buildings (which is many years in the future, if ever) and pretty much everyone has heard about probiotics for human health (currently an issue of much debate). One of the problems with both buildings and people is the difficulty of testing a hypothesis …

“Microbial Home” by Philips takes a futuristic, holistic, positive look at microbes in the home

As with our recent musings on probiotics for buildings, sometimes it’s fun and productive to think about the distant future in the microbiology of the built environment. And Royal Philips Electronics (Netherlands) has done just that with their futuristic “Microbial Home” project.  I’m not saying every one of their ideas will work, or that I’m …