Life Sciences Commons^™

How Getting Friendly With Bacteria Can Promote Student Appreciation Of Microbial Diversity And Their Civic Scientific Literacy, Davida S. Smyth, Simon Chen, Gina Sompanya, Molly Metz, Theresa Conefrey

Biology Faculty Publications

ePortfolios are digital repositories where students can curate papers, projects, and reflections from individual or multiple courses across the disciplines and in a variety of formats to showcase their learning. This transparent and portable medium, which enables students to document their knowledge and abilities for assessment and career development, has been recognized by the American Association of Colleges and Universities as one of 11 high-impact practices. Using tailored rubrics, student assessment of learning gain surveys, and end-of-course exam questions, this study demonstrates how an ePortfolio assignment can be used in microbiology courses taken by majors and nonmajors to measure student …

Humidity Reduces Rapid And Distant Airborne Dispersal Of Viable Viral Particles In Classroom Settings, Antun Skanata, Fabrizio Spagnolo, Molly Metz, Davida S. Smyth, John J. Dennehy

Biology Faculty Publications

The transmission of airborne pathogens is considered to be the main route through which a number of known and emerging respiratory diseases infect their hosts. While physical distancing and mask wearing may help mitigate short-range transmission, the extent of long-range transmission in closed spaces where a pathogen remains suspended in the air remains unknown. We have developed a method to detect viable virus particles by using an aerosolized bacteriophage Phi6 in combination with its host Pseudomonas phaseolicola, which when seeded on agar plates acts as a virus detector that can be placed at a range of distances away from …

Monitoring Sars-Cov-2 In Wastewater During New York City's Second Wave Of Covid-19: Sewershed-Level Trends And Relationships To Publicly Available Clinical Testing Data, Catherine Hoar, Francoise Chauvin, Alexander Clare, Hope Mcgibbon, Esmeraldo Castro, Davida S. Smyth, Et Al.

Biology Faculty Publications

New York City's wastewater monitoring program tracked trends in sewershed-level SARS-CoV-2 loads starting in the fall of 2020, just before the start of the city's second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak. During a five-month study period, from November 8, 2020 to April 11, 2021, viral loads in influent wastewater from each of New York City's 14 wastewater treatment plants were measured and compared to new laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases for the populations in each corresponding sewershed, estimated from publicly available clinical testing data. We found significant positive correlations between viral loads in wastewater and new COVID-19 cases. The strength of the …

Tracking Cryptic Sars-Cov-2 Lineages Detected In Nyc Wastewater, Davida S. Smyth, Monica Trujillo, Devon A. Gregory, Marc C. Johnson, John J. Dennehy, Et Al.

Biology Faculty Publications

Tracking SARS-CoV-2 genetic diversity is strongly indicated because diversifying selection may lead to the emergence of novel variants resistant to naturally acquired or vaccine-induced immunity. To monitor New York City (NYC) for the presence of novel variants, we deep sequence most of the receptor binding domain coding sequence of the S protein of SARS-CoV-2 isolated from the New York City wastewater. Here we report detecting increasing frequencies of novel cryptic SARS-CoV-2 lineages not recognized in GISAID’s EpiCoV database. These lineages contain mutations that had been rarely observed in clinical samples, including Q493K, Q498Y, E484A, and T572N and share many mutations …

Early Evidence Of The Sars-Cov-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) Variant In Community Wastewater: United States, November–December 2021, Amy Kirby, Rory M. Welsh, Zachary Marsh, Davida S. Smyth, Et Al.

Biology Faculty Publications

Notes from the Field: Early Evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 (Omicron) Variant in Community Wastewater — United States, November–December 2021

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