Given that humans in the developed world spend 90% of their lives in enclosed buildings,

We need to learn more about the biology of the built environment.  Buildings are complex ecosystems that house trillions of diverse microorganisms interacting with each other, with humans, and with their environment.

Recent advances in microbial genomics offer the potential to significantly advance our understanding of the built environment “microbiome” – the totality of microbial cells, their genetic elements, and their interactions indoors.