CAREER: Microbial indicators Of Latent Dampness (MOLD)

暴露在房屋中的霉菌每年要花费数十亿美元。暴露于空气中对8%患有哮喘的美国人口尤其有害；哮喘是导致儿童残疾的主要原因。目前，气味、可见的霉菌生长和潮湿是室内霉菌最好的指标。然而，这些措施是主观的。现有的定量方法侧重于识别生长在发霉建筑中的特定真菌种类，但不同地区和不同家庭的种类不同。该项目的目标是开发和验证一种新的量化测量工具，以评估任何种类的真菌的生长和潜在的不利健康后果。这项研究的成功完成将通过改善对潮湿建筑中发生的基本微生物过程的了解来保护人类健康。最终，一种新的测量工具将满足评估受洪水影响的房屋补救工作的有效性的关键需求。环境从业者和其他利益攸关方将参与整个项目，以学习和提供反馈。本科生研究人员还将参与这项研究，以加强研究生的渠道，同时通过与K-8学生合作来提高沟通和教学技能。总而言之，这些努力增加了国家的STEM管道，同时提高了国家的科学素养。该项目的总体目标是建立一个基于证据的测量目标，以评估基于物种独立的新陈代谢过程的家庭霉菌生长。我们将确定和验证指示微生物生长的新目标。总体假设是，真菌次级代谢途径的产物与物种无关，将比测量任何特定物种更有效地指示霉菌的生长。第一个目标是确定基本的代谢过程和潜在的微生物指标，这些指标与潮湿家庭中的微生物生长一致，受以下假设的驱动：次级代谢过程更普遍，次级代谢产物的基因表达将与潮湿条件更强烈和一致地相关。这一目标将通过收集50户未受潮湿破坏的家庭的灰尘，通过元转录分析来测量基因表达，并确定与潮湿条件最相关的过程，从而实现这一目标。这一点将通过对25个潮湿和25个非湿气损坏的对照家庭的三个或更多潜在指标的研究来验证，以确定该指标是否与其他潮湿指标有关。结果将由利益相关者咨询委员会进行评估，环境从业者将在研讨会上了解室内微生物生长情况。这项研究的成功完成将为研究潮湿建筑中发生的基本微生物过程提供新的见解，包括真菌中发生的代谢过程。最终，这项工作将促进我们对室内微生物动力学和人类暴露的基本理解，并为一套新的工具来测量室内霉菌以保护人类健康铺平道路。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Exposure to mold in homes costs billions of dollars every year. Exposure is particularly harmful to the 8% of the United States population that suffers from asthma; a leading cause of disability in children. Currently, odor, visible mold growth, and dampness are the best indicators of mold indoors. However, these measures are subjective. Existing quantitative methods focus on identifying specific fungal species that grow in moldy buildings, but species vary region-to-region and home-to-home. The goal of this project is to develop and validate a new quantitative measurement tool to assess growth of any species of fungi and potential adverse health outcomes. Successful completion of this research will protect human health through improved understanding of fundamental microbial processes that occur in damp buildings. Ultimately, a new measurement tool would fulfill a critical need to evaluate the effectiveness of remediation efforts for homes impacted by flooding. Environmental practitioners and other stakeholders will be engaged throughout the project to learn and provide feedback. Undergraduate researchers will also participate in the research to enhance the graduate student pipeline while also improving communication and teaching skills by working with K-8 students. Together, these efforts increase the Nation’s STEM pipeline while increasing the scientific literacy of the Nation.The overall goal of this project is to establish an evidence-based measurement target for evaluation of mold growth in homes based on species-independent metabolic processes. We will identify and validate novel targets to indicate microbial growth. The overall hypothesis is that products from secondary metabolic pathways of fungi are species-independent and will be a more effective indicator of mold growth than measurement of any specific species. The first objective is to identify fundamental metabolic processes and potential microbial indicators consistently associated with microbial growth in damp homes driven by the hypotheses that secondary metabolic processes are more prevalent and gene expression of secondary metabolic products will be more strongly and consistently associated with damp conditions. This objective will be achieved by collecting dust from 50 non-moisture-damaged homes to measure gene expression through metatranscriptomic analysis and identify the processes most strongly associated with damp conditions. This will be validated by studies of three or more of potential indicators in 25 damp and 25 non-moisture-damaged control homes to determine if the indicator is associated with other dampness measures. Results will be evaluated by a stakeholder advisory board, and environmental practitioners will learn about indoor microbial growth at a workshop. Successful completion of this research will provide new insights into fundamental microbial processes occurring in damp buildings, including metabolic processes occurring in fungi. Ultimately, this work will both advance our fundamental understanding of indoor microbial dynamics and human exposure as well as pave the way for a new suite of tools to measure mold indoors to protect human health.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.