Microbes are everywhere, in the air people breathe, even on the surface of skin. Life would not exist without microbes. This tiny world of living microorganisms and their effect on human health is the subject of a new research collaboration between University biology and architecture faculty and students.
University biology professors Jessica Green  and Brendan Bohannan and architecture professor G.Z. “Charlie” Brown are teaming up to create a new science that focuses on the ecology of indoor environments.  
The research will be done under the umbrella of the new Biology and the Built Environment (BioBE) Center at the University, a virtual intellectual center for the collaboration of faculty and students from the fields of biology and architecture. Green will be the director of the center. Research is currently in the beginning stages, and classes will be created as more research on the biology of indoor environments surfaces. Graduate students will be involved in studying the interface of biology and architecture, according to a University press release. However, Bohannan added that undergraduate students are also welcome to join in the research project.
The research team will look at two types of buildings that have different occupancy practices: hospitals that are occupied by humans 24 hours a day, and schools, which have specific times during the day when humans occupy the space.
Citizens of industrialized nations spend a predicted 90 percent of their time indoors.
The research team hopes to find out how microorganisms in indoor environments impact human health. They will be focusing on the differences between green or sustainable buildings with natural ventilation and conventional buildings with
little ventilation.  
Microbial diversity is the science of microorganisms and interactions with other living things and how they play a role in different environments.
“Microbes are in the air all the time and are not harmful. Many are beneficial to humans,” Bohannan said.
They can be found both outside and inside the human body. Some provide protection against diseases, while other types help digest food.
“People haven’t realized how much we live with is good for us,” Bohannan said.
The research project is being funded by part of a national $1.8 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, a nonprofit based in New York City.
The members of the research team are prominent professors at the University. Green was named a 2010 TED Fellow. Brown is a former winner of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership Award for Research and is a participating member of the Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center. Bohannan is the director of the Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
“Center activities also will lead to new interdisciplinary courses that link biology and architecture,” according to the University press release.
Green and Brown could not be reached by deadline.
[email protected]