Biology and the Built Environment (BioBE) Center

“Our goal is to optimize the design and operation of buildings to promote both human health and environmental sustainability.”

Located at the University of Oregon, the BioBE Center is a national center focused on the microbial ecology of indoor environments.  In particular, the center is interested in bringing together architects, engineers, and biologists to understand the complex interactions between microbial ecology and human health.

The three main questions that the center is addressing are:

1) What dispersal vectors, such as ventilation and human occupancy, significantly influence the microbial communities in the built environment?

2) What attributes of the built environment, such as building materials and interior temperature, shape the structure and composition of microbial communities indoors?

3) How do the drivers of microbial biodiversity in the indoor environment vary with climate, geography, and building use, such as in hospitals as compared to schools?

Principal Investigators

Jessica Green, University of Oregon
Brendan Bohannan, University of Oregon
Charlie Brown, University of Oregon

Center Website