1. Microbial
Life
in
Your
Home
Project
Directors:
Noah
Fierer
(Assoc.
Professor,
Univ.
of
Colorado)
Rob
Dunn
(Assoc.
Professor,
NC
State
Univ.)
Project
Personnel:
Holly
Menninger
(Director
of
Public
Science,
NC
State
Univ.)
Jon
Leff
(Research
Assoc.,
Univ.
of
Colorado)
Gilberto
Flores
(Postdoc,
Univ.
of
Colorado)
2. Project
Goals:
1. Explore
broad
paKerns
governing
the
distribuLon
of
bacteria
and
fungi
in
houses
across
the
U.S.
2. Generate
interest
in
the
unexplored
microbial
diversity
found
all
around
us
3. Engage
‘ciLzen
scienLsts’
in
the
scienLfic
process
of
exploring
microbial
ecology
7. How
does
microbial
diversity
outside
homes
relate
to
that
found
inside
homes?
How
does
x
influence
house-‐associated
bacterial
and
fungal
communiHes
across
the
U.S.?
x
=
presence
of
pets
in
the
home
climate
surrounding
land-‐use
type
(e.g.
urban
vs.
rural)
house
occupancy
vegetarian/non-‐vegetarian
house
type
(e.g.
free-‐standing
vs.
apartment)
house
characterisLcs
(e.g.
carpeted
vs.
bare
floors)
9. Ongoing
work:
-‐
Sequencing
and
analysis
of
samples
collected
from
20
homes
in
North
Carolina
-‐ Environmental
scanning
electron
microscopy
of
key
house-‐
associated
microbial
habitats
-‐ Volunteers
recruited
from
>6,000
houses
across
the
U.S.
Planned
work
(next
6
months):
-‐ Analyze
samples
from
>1000
houses
-‐ IdenLfy
and
establish
“super-‐sampler”
homes
for
longer-‐term
sampling
-‐ Design
experiments
and
more
directed
studies
to
build
on
research
findings
