Humans Have ‘Personal Microbial Clouds’, Leave Behind Identifiable Signatures

Although we all harbor similar types of bacteria, the makeup of each person’s “haze” is unique, according to scientists.

The researchers assured there is nothing to worry about, no matter how many or how complex the bacteria are in a person’s microbial cloud.

Altrichter told me that in the future, the researchers wanted to explore how their current findings would be applicable in a real world setting, where you didn’t have sanitized people sitting in chambers, but more like at desks and in bustling crowds.

This wasn’t hard: The fact is, human’s are walking “smokestacks”, emitting some one million biological particles every hour. While these microbes are common in humans, it was the different combinations of these bacteria populations that distinguished between individuals.

Each human gives off their own unique cloud of microbiome.

“Our results confirm that an occupied space is microbially distinct from an unoccupied one”, Meadow said, and “demonstrate for the first time that individuals release their own personalized microbial cloud”. Microbiologist Jonathan Eisen shared his viewpoints about microbes at a TEDMED talk, where he explained how our body is constantly being colonized by both the pathogens that make us sick and the “good” microbes (which we know less about) that might be keeping us healthy. Of course, germs are everywhere, and our evasive tactics are basically useless-but that’s OK, since most bacteria aren’t risky . Especially bacterial species such as Propionibacterium and Corynebacterium were looked for. But the simultaneously exciting and dystopian possibilities of each of our microbial clouds acting as invisible fingerprints remain. But now, the University of Oregon study claims the microbiome exists in a sort of fog around the person.

Previous researches showed that three main sources contribute to the airborne cloud of bacteria that surrounds everyone.

Meadow says the findings raise a number of possibilities, including, maybe, one day being able to identify a criminal by analyzing the microbial cloud he or she leaves behind at the scene.

Previous studies have found that it’s possible to lift someone’s microbiome from surfaces they’ve touched, sequencing the DNA of bacteria left on kitchen counters, floors, and bathrooms for clues about the person who left them there.

The study’s authors suggest “microbial cloud” sampling may have a place in forensics, but note that the technique needs to be considerably refined to overcome the “noise” generated by a crowded or large indoor space, or a dusty place.