Microbiomes of the built environment

Microbiomes of the built environment^[1][2] is a field of inquiry into the communities of microorganisms that live in human constructed environments like houses, cars and water pipes. It is also sometimes referred to as microbiology of the built environment.

• The field has accelerated somewhat in recent years, with significant funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation^[3] and with the increase attention being given to microbiomes and communities of microbes generally.
• The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine of the USA is conducting a study of this field with the study entitled "Microbiomes of the Built Environment: From Research to Application".^[4]
• The American Association for the Advancement of Science ran a symposium on the topic in 2014.^[5]
• The American Academy of Microbiology had a colloquium on this topic in September 2015 and published a report "Microbiology of Built Environments".^[6]

A 2016 paper by Brent Stephens ^[7] highlights some of the key findings of studies of "microbiomes of the indoor environment". These key findings include those listed below:

• "Culture-independent methods reveal vastly greater microbial diversity compared to culture-based methods"
• "Indoor spaces often harbor unique microbial communities"
• "Indoor bacterial communities often originate from indoor sources."
• "Humans are also major sources of bacteria to indoor air"
• "Building design and operation can influence indoor microbial communities."

The microbiomes of the built environment are being studied for multiple reasons including how they may impact the health of humans and other organisms occupying the built environment but also some non health reasons such as diagnostics of building properties, for forensic application, impact on food production, impact on built environment function, and more.