CAREER: Redefining 'antimicrobial' in the context of microbe-chemical interactions indoors

微生物无处不在，包括在与人类接触的室内环境中。我们在这些环境中广泛使用消毒剂和其他抗生素来对抗致病病原体，这些病原体只代表微生物生命的一小部分。尽管存在这种多样性，但抗菌化学品仅在少数标准实验室生物体上进行测试。这些化学品的广泛使用可能导致抗生素耐药性的传播，使抗生素在对抗疾病方面无效。这导致抗生素耐药性被认为是全球最大的公共卫生挑战之一。因此，了解抗菌化学品对实际室内微生物的影响至关重要。这个CAREER项目的目标是了解化学物质和室内微生物如何相互作用。这一目标将通过观察微生物化学接触发生在哪里以及在这些接触中幸存下来的微生物发生了什么来实现。这项工作的结果有可能深刻改变我们设计和维护室内环境的方式。这项工作与外展活动紧密结合，让设计专业人士和公众了解建筑材料、化学品和室内微生物，并更广泛地提高这一重要全球健康问题的科学素养。这个职业项目的目标是使用多管齐下的方法利用分子微生物学和分析化学来基本了解化学品和室内微生物组如何相互作用。评估这种相互作用的具体背景是纺织品。总体假设是：1）抗菌化学品的生物利用度在环境条件下发生变化，2）暴露于抗菌化学品会改变细菌群落结构和功能，包括抗生素耐药性的富集。为了观察纺织品中抗菌剂的生物利用度如何受到环境条件的影响，将在不同条件下使用高分辨率质谱法对纳米银、纳米锌和季铵化合物等抗菌剂进行鉴定和定量。为了测试纺织品中的抗菌剂是否会改变微生物组，未驯化的建筑环境细菌的复杂性降低的社区将暴露于抗菌材料。将测量转录组学指标和抗生素耐药性表型。这项工作与一个外展项目紧密结合，旨在吸引设计专业人士和公众关注建筑材料，化学品和室内微生物组。建筑师和设计师将通过跨学科研讨会，课程开发和建筑师继续教育单位为实验设计和研究结果的传播提供信息。本科生和研究生将接受科学传播方面的培训。Wikipedia edit-a-thons将用于改善与室内环境质量相关的页面。最终，这项工作将大大推进我们对抗菌化学品如何从建筑材料中迁移出来以及如何塑造室内细菌群落的生存能力和抗生素耐药性的认识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Microbes are everywhere, including in indoor environments where they come into contact with humans. We use disinfectants and other antibiotics widely in these environments to combat disease-causing pathogens, which represent only a tiny fraction of microbial life. In spite of this diversity, antimicrobial chemicals are tested on just a handful of standard laboratory organisms. The widespread use these chemicals can lead to the spread of antibiotic resistance, making antibiotics ineffective in fighting disease. This has led to antibiotic resistance being considered one of the biggest global public health challenges. It is thus critical to understand the impacts of antimicrobial chemicals on actual indoor microbes. The goal of this CAREER project is to understand how chemicals and indoor microbes interact. This goal will be accomplished by looking at where microbe-chemical encounters happen in the and what happens to the microbes that survive these encounters. The results of this work have the potential to profoundly change the way we design and maintain indoor environments. This work is tightly integrated with outreach to engage design professionals and the public about building materials, chemicals, and indoor microbes, and more broadly increase scientific literacy on this important global health issue.The goal of this CAREER project is to use a multipronged approach to leverage molecular microbiology and analytical chemistry to arrive at a fundamental understanding of how chemicals and the indoor microbiome interact. The specific context in which this interaction will be evaluated is textiles. The overarching hypotheses are that 1) bioavailability of antimicrobial chemicals changes under environmental conditions and 2) exposure to antimicrobial chemicals changes bacterial community structure and function, including enrichment of antibiotic resistance. To observe how bioavailability of antimicrobials in textiles is impacted by environmental conditions, antimicrobials such as nanosilver, nanozinc, and quaternary ammonium compounds will be identified and quantified using high resolution mass spectrometry under varying conditions. To test if antimicrobials in textiles alter the microbiome, reduced-complexity communities of undomesticated built environment bacteria will be exposed to antimicrobial materials. Transcriptomic indicators and antibiotic resistance phenotypes will be measured. This work is tightly integrated with an outreach project to engage design professionals and the public about building materials, chemicals, and the indoor microbiome. Architects and designers will inform experimental design and dissemination of findings through interdisciplinary workshops, curriculum development, and continuing education units for architects. Undergraduate and graduate students will be trained in science communication. Wikipedia edit-a-thons will be hosted to improve pages related to indoor environmental quality. Ultimately, this work will greatly advance our knowledge on how antimicrobial chemicals migrate out of building materials and shape the viability and antibiotic resistance of indoor bacterial communities.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.