Jordan Peccia, The Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Yale University

SOLVING AN OLD ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PROBLEM WITH NEW GENETICS-BASED APPROACHES; THE CASE OF MOLD IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT:  We spend more than 90% of our life in buildings, where microbial and chemical concentrations are typically higher than outdoors. A central and longstanding microbial problem in buildings is exposure to mold growing on damp building materials, yet prior epidemiology studies have not yielded causal relationships between mold taxa and the myriad negative health impacts known to occur in occupants of homes with visible mold growth or water damage. Over the last 5 years, our research group has leveraged the big data produced through genomic and transcriptomic studies on building fungal communities to draw new insights into the fungal ecological and physiological features that are related to human health. We have also built gene-based tools for the mold remediation industry to effectively inspect and clear damaged homes. 

BIO: Jordan Peccia is the Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of environmental engineering at Yale University. His research integrates genetics, engineering, and public health to study human exposures to bacteria, fungi and viruses in the indoor and outdoor environments. Peccia is a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering,  associate editor for the journal Indoor Air, and founding chair of the Gordon Conference on Microbiology of the Built Environment. He earned his PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Colorado.