Jessica Green: Good germs make healthy buildings

Summary

The script explores the concept of designing invisible microbial ecosystems in our surroundings, such as offices and buildings, to influence human health. Research at the University of Oregon revealed distinct microbial communities in different spaces, suggesting that architectural design, air systems, and human movement can shape these ecosystems. The speaker advocates for 'bioinformed design,' using ecological principles to create healthier environments, and discusses the potential impact on challenges like hospital-acquired infections.

Takeaways

• 🌿 Invisible ecosystems are composed of microbes like bacteria, viruses, and fungi, which reside on everyday objects and in our bodies.
• 🧬 Our bodies host trillions of microbes that significantly influence our weight, mood, immune system, and even breath freshness.
• 🤝 Personal ecosystems interact with the ecosystems on objects we touch, such as a pencil, leading to microbial exchange.
• 🛠️ Designing for invisible ecosystems can potentially influence our health in new and significant ways.
• 🔍 Research in architecture demonstrates the impact of both conscious and unconscious design on microbial ecosystems through dust sampling and gene sequence comparison.
• 🏢 The Lillis Business Complex at the University of Oregon was studied to understand how architectural design affects microbial landscapes within a building.
• 🔬 Dust samples from the building were analyzed to create a 'fossil record' of the microbial communities present.
• 🌐 Bacterial communities in different spaces, like offices and restrooms, have distinct compositions, likened to different biomes like tropical rainforests and temperate grasslands.
• 💨 The building's air system plays a crucial role in microbial dispersal, with air handling units creating distinct microbial environments.
• 🌍 Mechanical engineers, through their designs, can inadvertently structure biomes within buildings, similar to eco-engineers.
• 🚶‍♂️ Proximity of rooms influences the similarity of their microbial ecosystems, with closer rooms sharing more similar microbes.
• 🏥 The understanding of microbial dispersal can be applied to tackle challenges such as hospital-acquired infections.
• 🌿 Sustainable design strategies, such as those implemented by architect Charlie Brown, can impact the ecology and health aspects of a building by improving air quality.
• 📱 The concept of bioinformed design suggests that we could intentionally design spaces with beneficial microbes, like on phones or in planes, for improved health outcomes.

Q & A

What are invisible ecosystems?

Invisible ecosystems refer to the microbial communities composed of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that inhabit various surfaces and spaces, including desks, computers, pencils, and buildings.

How do personal ecosystems interact with the ecosystems on objects we touch?

Personal ecosystems interact with the ecosystems on objects through microbial exchange, which occurs when we touch things like pencils, influencing both the object's and our own microbial composition.

What influence do gut microbes have on humans?

Gut microbes can influence a person's weight and moods, indicating a significant role in both physical and mental health.

How can microbes on the skin contribute to our health?

Microbes on the skin can help boost the immune system, playing a role in our body's defense mechanisms against pathogens.

What is the role of microbes in the environment?

Microbes play a crucial role in nutrient cycling, decomposing organic matter, and supporting plant growth by fixing nitrogen and other essential elements.

Outlines

00:00

🌿 Designing Invisible Microbiomes

The first paragraph introduces the concept of invisible ecosystems that permeate every aspect of our surroundings, including objects like desks, computers, and buildings. It discusses the importance of considering these microbial landscapes in design and their interaction with our personal ecosystems, which are integral to our health and well-being. The speaker shares insights from her research on architecture, demonstrating how the design of spaces can impact the invisible microbial world. The Lillis Business Complex at the University of Oregon serves as a case study, where dust samples were analyzed to understand the building's microbial composition. The data was visualized to show distinct microbial communities in different areas, such as offices and restrooms, highlighting the potential for conscious design to influence health through these ecosystems.

05:01

🌱 The Impact of Design on Microbial Dispersal

The second paragraph delves into how the design of spaces affects the dispersal of microbes, which are carried by people and air systems. The speaker discusses the biogeographic patterns of microbial ecosystems in the Lillis Business Complex, noting similarities in adjacent rooms and differences in more distant ones. The concept of 'bioinformed design' is introduced, which considers the ecological impact of design choices on health, exemplified by the potential to reduce hospital-acquired infections. The speaker collaborates with an architect, Charlie Brown, who integrates sustainable design with an understanding of its ecological and biological effects. The narrative includes an experiment on classroom ventilation, contrasting the effects of closed and open air systems on microbial communities and air quality, and concludes with the idea of applying bioinformed design principles to various environments, such as planes and phones, to enhance health and well-being.

Keywords

💡Invisible ecosystems

Invisible ecosystems refer to the microscopic communities of life forms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi that exist in our surroundings but are not visible to the naked eye. They are integral to the video's theme as they play a significant role in our daily lives, influencing our health and environment. The script mentions that these ecosystems are present on everyday objects like desks, computers, and pencils, emphasizing the pervasive nature of these microbial landscapes.

💡Microbial landscapes

Microbial landscapes are the specific environments inhabited by microbes on various surfaces and in different spaces. They are a key concept in the video, illustrating how every space we interact with has its own unique microbial composition. The script discusses how these landscapes can be influenced by design, and how they can, in turn, affect human health.

💡Personal ecosystems

Personal ecosystems are the trillions of microbes that live within and on our bodies, contributing to our health and well-being. The video highlights how these microbes can influence weight, mood, immune system, and even breath freshness. They interact with the ecosystems we touch, indicating the interconnectedness between our bodies and the environment.

💡Microbial exchange

Microbial exchange is the process by which microbes are transferred from one surface or organism to another. The concept is crucial in the video as it demonstrates how simply touching an object, like a pencil, can result in a transfer of microbes, emphasizing the dynamic nature of microbial interactions.

💡Bioinformed design

Bioinformed design is a conscious approach to designing spaces and objects with an understanding of the impact on microbial ecosystems. The video speaker advocates for this approach, suggesting that by considering the invisible ecosystems in our designs, we can influence human health in new ways. It is exemplified through the architectural design of the Lillis Business Complex.

💡Gene sequences

Gene sequences are the ordered nucleotide patterns in DNA that encode genetic information. In the context of the video, gene sequences are used to identify and compare bacterial cells extracted from dust samples, providing a 'fossil record' of the building's microbial composition. This method is central to the research conducted by the speaker and her team.

💡Air handling units

Air handling units are mechanical systems designed to regulate air flow, temperature, and quality within a building. The video discusses how these units can also influence the microbial composition of the air, suggesting that mechanical engineers could apply biological principles to structure the biomes within a building.

💡Biome

A biome is a large community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat. In the video, the term is used metaphorically to describe the different microbial ecosystems found in various rooms of a building, likening them to distinct ecological regions such as tropical rainforests or temperate grasslands.

💡Dispersal

Dispersal in ecology refers to the movement or spreading of organisms from one place to another. The video uses this concept to explain how microbes are spread by people and air, and how this movement can be influenced by design choices, such as the layout of rooms and the operation of air systems.

💡BLIS

BLIS, or Bifidobacterium longum immunogen strain, is a beneficial microbe mentioned in the video that can help ward off pathogens and improve breath freshness. The speaker muses on the idea of incorporating such beneficial microbes into the design of everyday objects like phones, illustrating the potential of bioinformed design to enhance health and well-being.

💡Sustainable passive design

Sustainable passive design is an architectural approach that optimizes the use of natural light, heat, and ventilation to reduce energy consumption. The video contrasts this with traditional methods that may save energy but could lead to stagnant air and microbial buildup. The speaker shows how sustainable passive design can maintain a healthier microbial environment.

Highlights

Invisible ecosystems consist of tiny lifeforms like bacteria, viruses, and fungi that inhabit our everyday objects.

Designers can consider the invisible microbial landscapes when creating objects and spaces.

The human body hosts trillions of microbes that significantly influence our health and mood.

Microbes on our skin can enhance our immune system, and those in our mouth can affect our breath.

Personal ecosystems interact with the ecosystems on everything we touch, including a simple pencil.

Designing invisible ecosystems in our surroundings could influence our health in new ways.

The speaker believes that designing microbial ecosystems is possible and is already being done unconsciously.

Research data from the Lillis Business Complex at the University of Oregon demonstrates the impact of design on microbial ecosystems.

The study involved sampling over 300 rooms in a building to create a 'fossil record' of microbial life through dust.

Different spaces within a building, such as restrooms and classrooms, have distinct and similar microbial ecosystems respectively.

Bathrooms are likened to tropical rainforests in terms of microbial diversity, while offices resemble temperate grasslands.

Ecological principles, such as dispersal, can be applied to understand how microbes move within a building.

Air handling units in buildings can significantly influence the microbial composition of the air.

Mechanical engineers can act as eco-engineers, structuring biomes within buildings through their designs.

Proximity of rooms affects the similarity of their microbial ecosystems, suggesting the role of human movement in microbial dispersal.

The speaker suggests that understanding microbial dispersal could help address challenges like hospital-acquired infections.

Collaboration with an architect revealed how design choices impact the ecology and biology of a building, adding a new dimension to sustainable design.

Experiments showed that rooms with poor ventilation can harbor a 'bacterial soup', affecting air quality and potentially health.

Sustainable passive design strategies, such as using louvers for ventilation, can improve air quality by reducing the buildup of indoor microbes.

The concept of 'bioinformed design' is introduced, advocating for a conscious approach to designing with microbes in mind.

The potential for designing with beneficial microbes, such as BLIS, on everyday objects like phones is highlighted.

Transcripts

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

Everything is covered in invisible ecosystems

made of tiny lifeforms: bacteria, viruses and fungi.

Our desks, our computers, our pencils, our buildings

all harbor resident microbial landscapes.

As we design these things, we could be thinking

about designing these invisible worlds,

and also thinking about how they interact

with our personal ecosystems.

Our bodies are home to trillions of microbes,

and these creatures define who we are.

The microbes in your gut can influence your weight and your moods.

The microbes on your skin can help boost your immune system.

The microbes in your mouth can freshen your breath,

or not,

and the key thing is that our personal ecosystems

interact with ecosystems on everything we touch.

So, for example, when you touch a pencil,

microbial exchange happens.

If we can design the invisible ecosystems in our surroundings,

this opens a path to influencing

our health in unprecedented ways.

I get asked all of the time from people,

"Is it possible to really design microbial ecosystems?"

And I believe the answer is yes.

I think we're doing it right now,

but we're doing it unconsciously.

I'm going to share data with you

from one aspect of my research focused on architecture

that demonstrates how, through both conscious

and unconscious design,

we're impacting these invisible worlds.

This is the Lillis Business Complex at the University of Oregon,

and I worked with a team of architects and biologists

to sample over 300 rooms in this building.

We wanted to get something like a fossil record of the building,

and to do this, we sampled dust.

From the dust, we pulled out bacterial cells,

broke them open, and compared their gene sequences.

This means that people in my group

were doing a lot of vacuuming during this project.

This is a picture of Tim, who,

right when I snapped this picture, reminded me,

he said, "Jessica, the last lab group I worked in

I was doing fieldwork in the Costa Rican rainforest,

and things have changed dramatically for me."

So I'm going to show you now first what we found in the offices,

and we're going to look at the data through a visualization tool

that I've been working on in partnership with Autodesk.

The way that you look at this data is,

first, look around the outside of the circle.

You'll see broad bacterial groups,

and if you look at the shape of this pink lobe,

it tells you something about the relative abundance of each group.

So at 12 o'clock, you'll see that offices have a lot of

alphaproteobacteria, and at one o'clock

you'll see that bacilli are relatively rare.

Let's take a look at what's going on in different space types in this building.

If you look inside the restrooms,

they all have really similar ecosystems,

and if you were to look inside the classrooms,

those also have similar ecosystems.

But if you look across these space types,

you can see that they're fundamentally different

from one another.

I like to think of bathrooms like a tropical rainforest.

I told Tim, "If you could just see the microbes,

it's kind of like being in Costa Rica. Kind of."

And I also like to think of offices as being a temperate grassland.

This perspective is a really powerful one for designers,

because you can bring on principles of ecology,

and a really important principle of ecology is dispersal,

the way organisms move around.

We know that microbes are dispersed around by people

and by air.

So the very first thing we wanted to do in this building

was look at the air system.

Mechanical engineers design air handling units

to make sure that people are comfortable,

that the air flow and temperature is just right.

They do this using principles of physics and chemistry,

but they could also be using biology.

If you look at the microbes

in one of the air handling units in this building,

you'll see that they're all very similar to one another.

And if you compare this to the microbes

in a different air handling unit,

you'll see that they're fundamentally different.

The rooms in this building are like islands in an archipelago,

and what that means is that mechanical engineers

are like eco-engineers, and they have the ability

to structure biomes in this building the way that they want to.

Another facet of how microbes get around is by people,

and designers often cluster rooms together

to facilitate interactions among people,

or the sharing of ideas, like in labs and in offices.

Given that microbes travel around with people,

you might expect to see rooms that are close together

have really similar biomes.

And that is exactly what we found.

If you look at classrooms right adjacent to one another,

they have very similar ecosystems,

but if you go to an office

that is a farther walking distance away,

the ecosystem is fundamentally different.

And when I see the power that dispersal has

on these biogeographic patterns,

it makes me think that it's possible

to tackle really challenging problems,

like hospital-acquired infections.

I believe this has got to be, in part,

a building ecology problem.

All right, I'm going to tell you one more story about this building.

I am collaborating with Charlie Brown.

He's an architect,

and Charlie is deeply concerned about global climate change.

He's dedicated his life to sustainable design.

When he met me and realized that it was possible for him

to study in a quantitative way

how his design choices impacted

the ecology and biology of this building,

he got really excited, because it added a new dimension to what he did.

He went from thinking just about energy

to also starting to think about human health.

He helped design some of the air handling systems

in this building and the way it was ventilated.

So what I'm first going to show you is

air that we sampled outside of the building.

What you're looking at is a signature of bacterial communities

in the outdoor air, and how they vary over time.

Next I'm going to show you what happened

when we experimentally manipulated classrooms.

We blocked them off at night

so that they got no ventilation.

A lot of buildings are operated this way,

probably where you work,

and companies do this to save money on their energy bill.

What we found is that these rooms remained relatively stagnant

until Saturday, when we opened the vents up again.

When you walked into those rooms,

they smelled really bad,

and our data suggests that it had something to do with

leaving behind the airborne bacterial soup

from people the day before.

Contrast this to rooms

that were designed using a sustainable passive design strategy

where air came in from the outside through louvers.

In these rooms, the air tracked the outdoor air relatively well,

and when Charlie saw this, he got really excited.

He felt like he had made a good choice

with the design process

because it was both energy efficient

and it washed away the building's resident microbial landscape.

The examples that I just gave you are about architecture,

but they're relevant to the design of anything.

Imagine designing with the kinds of microbes that we want

in a plane

or on a phone.

There's a new microbe, I just discovered it.

It's called BLIS, and it's been shown

to both ward off pathogens

and give you good breath.

Wouldn't it be awesome if we all had BLIS on our phones?

A conscious approach to design,

I'm calling it bioinformed design,

and I think it's possible.

Thank you.

(Applause)