New PreMiEr Publication: Time to Move Beyond Killing Germs to Managing Microbial Communities
PreMiEr directors Claudia Gunsch and Joe Brown argue in Environmental Science and Technology that effective built environment microbial control requires moving beyond pathogen-killing toward microbiome-informed engineering that considers full community dynamics.
A new perspective piece by PreMiEr directors Claudia Gunsch and Joe Brown, published in Environmental Science and Technology, argues that the longstanding approach to microbial control in buildings, focused on killing pathogens, is too narrow for the complex microbial realities of the built environment. The authors make the case for a shift toward microbiome-informed engineering that accounts for community structure, ecological stability, and resistance dynamics alongside pathogen suppression. They outline the research needed to translate this broader ecosystem thinking into practical, quantitative, risk-based engineering decisions for hospitals and other built environments.
Read more here: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6c02788