#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 …

Online course: Microbiomes and their Impact on Viral Infections

Looks like a potentially interesting course… certainly topical!  Information below, website here.   The study of the microbiome is one of the most promising scientific and medical revolutions in recent times. It is now clear that changes in the microbiome composition (referred to as dysbiosis) are major drivers to several human diseases and public health …

Job posting: Senior Scientist in Microbiome Sciences at PNNL

Got this job posting for a Senior Scientist in Microbiome Sciences at PNNL.   Job Description The Biological Systems Science Group within the Biological Sciences Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking a senior scientist who will bring an established and vigorous independent research program in microbiome sciences (broadly defined) to the highly …

Citizen Science Project on the Tomato Seed Microbiome

(cross posted to the UCD Microbiome SRP blog) What do you get when you combine UC Davis alumni, tomato seeds, and citizen science?   That would be Project GASP (“Germ”-ination Alumni Science Project).  I didn’t come up with the name, I swear.   This project, sponsored and paid for by the College of Biological Sciences at UC …

Journal Club: “Home chemical and microbial transitions across urbanization”

Another really interesting paper from Maria Dominguez-Bello and her lab and colleagues, “Home chemical and microbial transitions across urbanization”.  They’ve done some fascinating work in the past on the microbiome changes across an urbanization gradient and here they expand that work to include a bunch of chemistry data.  Definitely worth a read for anyone interested …

Man-made microbial resistances in built environments

Antibiotic resistance has been assessed to rise to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world, and new resistance mechanisms are emerging and spreading globally. At the same time the number of people dying from antibiotic-resistant bacteria is increasing. The World Health Organization considers the spread of antibiotic resistance and appropriate countermeasures as one …

Metagenome Data Scientist – DOE Joint Genome Institute

Harnessing Microbiome Data Science for Energy and the Environment The mission of the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) is to advance genomics in support of the DOE missions related to energy and the environment. Located in Walnut Creek, California, the DOE JGI provides integrated high-throughput DNA sequencing, synthesis, and computational analysis …

Fuzzy zeros in percentile normalization method to correct for batch effects

We recently published a method to normalize data that corrects for batch effects and allows for pooling of raw data across studies. In this post, I want to discuss more about the important (but potentially confusing) aspect of our method, where we add noise to the zeros before performing the normalization. I’ve gotten a few …

Microbiome Bioinformatics Postdoctoral Scientist, Colorado State University

The Metcalf lab at Colorado State University is seeking a microbiome bioinformatics postdoctoral scientist. The scientist will analyze multi-omics data sets, including but not limited to: amplicon sequencing data, shotgun metagenomics data, and metabolomics data. Min. reqs. include: Ph.D. in bioinformatics, ecology, microbiology or similar field. Proficient in coding languages (Python preferred). Demonstrated knowledge of …

An informative glimpse into the drug factory microbiome: Which bugs coexist with our drugs? The story behind the paper

The story behind: Toward the Drug Factory Microbiome: Microbial Community Variations in Antibiotic-Producing Clean Rooms (OMICS. 2018 Feb;22(2):133-144. doi: 10.1089/omi.2017.0091.) PMID: 28873001 [Preprint] It was in 2013, on my return to Cairo University after a couple of years as a visiting scientist at UCSD, that I met Amal for the first time. Amal was a fresh master’s …