Air Microbiology Explainer: What Do These Terms Mean?

I often get asked to explain what I do, and it’s not easy.

As an air microbiology expert, I spend a lot of time with terminology that exists well outside mainstream understanding, even for many people who read the medical and science journals in which most of my work has been published.

So for my first blog here, I would like to offer a brief explainer of some of the jargon that occurs most frequently in my work as an air quality consultant focused on microbial occupational exposure.

Here’s a few terms and definitions that are helpful to know if you’re interested in learning more about my work and why I believe it’s so important.

Bioaerosols

This term is one of the simplest ones, although it’s easily misunderstood.

According to the 2008 International Encyclopedia of Public Health: “Bioaerosols are airborne compounds or micro fragments from plant or animal matter or from microorganisms but also comprise whole microorganisms that are either dead or alive. Exposure to these agents may cause infectious diseases, allergic diseases, acute toxic effects, respiratory diseases, neurological effects, and possibly cancer.”

Interest in bioaerosols has certainly surged during the pandemic. The more we understand how bioaerosols function in indoor spaces, the more we can prevent transmission for the benefit of all.

As Michael Hodgson wrote in the 2005 Encyclopedia of Toxicology (Second Edition): “Several studies have suggested that bioaerosols may contribute to occupant discomfort through several different mechanisms: irritant emissions; release of fragments, spores, or viable organisms leading to allergy; and secretion of complex toxins. Several studies suggest a relationship between symptoms indoors and airborne endotoxin levels.”

Next-Generation Sequencing/High-Throughput Sequencing

If you understand that explanation, then we can talk about Next-Generation Sequencing, which was the foundation for my graduate research of applying High-Throughput Sequencing technologies to bioaerosol studies.

I like the Illumina definition of Next-Generation Sequencing, or NGS: “Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a massively parallel sequencing technology that offers ultra-high throughput, scalability, and speed….NGS has revolutionized the biological sciences, allowing labs to perform a wide variety of applications and study biological systems at a level never before possible.”

In short, Next-Gen Sequencing offers a greater depth of information than the DNA sequencing technologies of the past. It can also be called High-throughput sequencing.

Either way, this work is about “second-generation sequencing, which works with short read lengths, and third generation sequencing, which can work with longer read lengths.”

In my own research, I applied High-Throughput Sequencing technologies to bioaerosol studies to describe the microbial diversity of fungi and bacteria in the air of different environments in the context of occupational exposure.

Bioinformatics

This term can be taken apart to explain itself, as it combines biology with information.

As YourGenome.org puts it: “Bioinformatics is the science of both storing lots of complex biological data, and of analyzing it to find new insights, which we use in many different ways.”

This field has become crucial for collating different kinds of biological research together to reach new conclusions backed by various pools of data. It allows all kinds of scientists and researchers, including computer programmers, mathematicians or database managers to work together. Essentially, bioinformatics allows us to link together research and find answers to really big questions. In this context, it allow us to process and analyze the big data generated from the NGS.

Genomics

Lastly, we have genomics, which is simply the study of genes. It’s a relatively new field, as the technology to analyze genetic structures hasn’t been around that long.

We have just begun to explore the power of this field, which could transform healthcare. The human genome is incredibly complex, with three billion base pairs of DNA. The more we understand our genes, the more we understand ourselves, how we interact with our environment, and perhaps how we can manage our environments to improve health and safety for all.

Putting this together, my research focuses on using NGS and genomics to characterize the type of microbes we are exposed to through the air.