Lunch & Learn Seminar

Bring your lunch and join other Pratt faculty, staff, and students to learn about one department/team/professor's research on a subject new to you. Questions and discussion are encouraged!

Details on this seminar hosted by Dr. David Singleton:

The NSF-funded Precision Microbiome Engineering Research Center (PreMiEr) headquartered at Duke University is a collaboration with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to study the microbiomes of the built environment. The built environment is all around us and includes any structures built by man. This includes places like our homes, work places, vehicles, and shopping malls. We spend the majority of our time living, playing, and working in these spaces. But we are not alone. Millions of microorganisms - bacteria, fungi, viruses, and others - live alongside us in communities of their own known as microbiomes. Most peacefully co-exist with humans, while others such as the SARS-CoV-2 virus, have significantly impacted our health and changed the way we live. PreMiEr brings together diverse teams to study the complex assemblages of microorganisms that live in the built environment, identify ways to stop the growth and spread of pathogens, develop technologies to monitor and modify microbial communities, and identify and encourage the growth of microorganisms that are not only benign but potentially capable of promoting human health. This talk discusses the mission of PreMiEr, its hopeful outcomes, and the vast community of stakeholders assembled to tackle an issue of concern to everyone.