B
Study Methods
COMMITTEE COMPOSITION
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) appointed a committee of 16 experts to undertake the statement of task for this study. The committee was composed of members with expertise in such areas as microbial ecology, public health, building science and engineering, architecture, materials science, bioinformatics, and molecular characterization tools. Appendix C provides biographical information for each committee member.
Meetings and Information Gathering
The committee deliberated from approximately February 2016 to May 2017. To respond to its charge, the committee gathered information and data relevant to its statement of task by conducting a review of available literature and other publicly available resources, inviting experts to share perspectives at public meetings, and soliciting public comments online and in person.
The committee held four information-gathering meetings in Washington, DC, and Irvine, California, and heard from a variety of academic and private-sector researchers, as well as federal and state government officials. These meetings focused on understanding the current research being conducted in the field of the microbiomes of the built environment, as well as on identifying research needs and roadblocks in the microbiology, engineering, and building science fields.
The first meeting, held April 11–12, 2016, in Washington, DC, provided an opportunity for the committee to discuss the study with sponsoring organizations and to hear presentations from background speakers in areas relevant to study topics, including microbiology within built environments, microbiology within the International Space Station, and current engineering standards for big-box stores.
The second meeting, held June 20–12, 2016, in Washington, DC, included speakers who discussed interactions occurring between built environment microbiomes and human occupants, as well as major building systems that affect or are affected by indoor microbiomes and their impacts.
The third meeting, held October 17–18, 2016, in Irvine, California, included speakers knowledgeable about the toolkit for studying microbiome–built environment interactions, viruses and fungi in the built environment, and other topics. The meeting also included a number of younger researchers whose travel was supported by a travel award (sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation) and who had the opportunity to present posters on their research.
The fourth meeting, held December 1–2, 2016, in Washington, DC, included speakers who discussed the impacts of such interventions as cleaning and the development of antimicrobial materials on indoor microorganisms, the role of dermal uptake in the indoor environment, and the current state of bioinformatics pipelines and analysis needs.
Public Communication
The committee’s two largest data-gathering meetings, in June and October 2016, provided opportunities to interact with additional stakeholders, including researchers and any others interested in the study topic. These participants contributed their views during open discussions following speaker presentations and through breakout sessions. The committee also worked to make its activities as transparent and accessible as possible for those who may not have been able to attend in person. The study website1 was updated regularly to reflect the committee’s recent and planned activities. Outreach efforts included a study-specific email address for comments and questions, as well as social media feeds and tags. A subscription button also was available to provide for the receipt of email updates on the study and solicitation of comments and input to be shared with the committee.
Live video streams and subsequent links to recordings of the open session presentations were also made available during the course of the study to provide an opportunity for input from those unable to attend commit-
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1 See http://nas-sites.org/builtmicrobiome (accessed on July 26, 2017).
tee meetings in person. Any information provided to the committee from outside sources or through the online comment tool is available by request through the National Academies’ Public Access Records Office.
Invited Speakers
The following individuals were invited speakers at the committee’s meetings and data-gathering sessions:
Gary Adamkiewicz
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Rachel Adams
University of California, Berkeley
Gary Andersen
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
University of California, Berkeley
Tina Bahadori
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Terry Brennan
Camroden Associates
Brandon “Bubba” Brooks
University of California, Berkeley
Lisa Chadwick
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Pieter Dorrestein
University of California, San Diego
Rob Dunn
North Carolina State University
Sarah Evans
Michigan State University
M. Patricia Fabian
Boston University
Elizabeth Grice
University of Pennsylvania
Robin Guenther
Perkins+Will
Jonathan “Kirk” Harris
University of Colorado Denver
Scott Jackson
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Janet Jansson
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lee Ann Kahlor
The University of Texas at Austin
Benjamin Kirkup
Naval Research Laboratory
Rob Knight
University of California, San Diego
Laura Kolb
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Jay Lennon
Indiana University Bloomington
Susan Lynch
University of California, San Francisco
Linsey Marr
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Jennifer Martiny
University of California, Irvine
Mark Mendell
California Department of Public Health
Shelly Miller
University of Colorado Boulder
Donald Milton
University of Maryland
Paula Olsiewski
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Amy Pruden
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Tiina Reponen
University of Cincinnati
Charles Robertson
University of Colorado Boulder
Richard Shaughnessy
University of Tulsa
Jeffrey Siegel
University of Toronto
Joanne Sordillo
Brigham and Women’s Hospital,
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Jelena Srebric
University of Maryland
Dennis Stanke
Trane Ingersoll Rand (retired)
Brent Stephens
Illinois Institute of Technology
Phil Stewart
Montana State University
Elizabeth Stulberg
Office of the Chief Scientist,
U.S. Department of Agriculture
John Taylor
University of California, Berkeley
David Tomko
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Kevin van den Wymelenberg
University of Oregon
Kasthuri Venkateswaran
Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Michael Waring
Drexel University
Charles Weschler
Rutgers University
