Linsey Marr
@linseymarr.bsky.social
Engineering professor at Virginia Tech with expertise in air pollution, airborne microbes, nanotechnology. Avid recreational athlete.
New JAMA paper describes an RCT with portable air filters in nursing homes in the UK. Filters were undersized and not always on. Guess what...there was no difference in wintertime respiratory infections. It's like testing a new drug at 20% of the recommended dose. www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/can...
Can air purifiers prevent flu and COVID-19 in nursing homes? Only if they’re used properly
cidrap.umn.edu
It's awful that six people have died from the Legionnaires' disease outbreak in NYC. It spreads by inhaling Legionella bacteria, which are probably being aerosolized from a cooling tower. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/n... My postdoc Thuong Cao is studying their survival in droplets.
Legionnaires’ Disease Has Made a Home in New York City. Here’s How. (Gift Article)
New York has endured significant outbreaks in recent years. Some experts say officials should focus more on risks in plumbing systems, even shower heads.
nytimes.com
My postdoc Thuong Cao was on @scifri.bsky.social talking about formaldehyde-eating bacteria in fog droplets, research conducted while she was a PhD student at Arizona State University. www.sciencefriday.com/segments/bac...
What lives in the fog? Pollution-eating bacteria
While fog itself is not alive, researchers found that it can contain an ecosystem, including bacteria that eat pollutants.
sciencefriday.com
This is a very thorough and very informative article about air purifiers and air quality. www.cnet.com/home/kitchen...
The Unfiltered Truth: What Air Purifiers Actually Catch
I connected with experts to find out where our air quality is headed, and if air purifiers are the breath of fresh air we need.
cnet.com
There's a Legionella outbreak in NYC, and I got a good question about N95s and Legionella. Yes, an N95 should protect against exposure to the bacteria, although I couldn't find any official guidance on this. They're big enough to be easily blocked by an N95. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...
New York City now has 23 cases of Legionnaires' disease on the Upper East Side, officials say
The Legionnaires' disease cluster on the Upper East Side has grown to 23 cases, the New York City Health Department confirmed Monday.
cbsnews.com
The general patterns are true for any kind of vehicle, not just EVs.
Dustin Poppendieck @poppendieck.bsky.social · last mo.The hotter your car cabin is the higher the concentration of chemicals in the cabin air. (Concentrations roughly double for each 10C increase in temp).... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
I got to hang out with @rommieamaro.bsky.social and @kprather.bsky.social at UC San Diego! I met their students, who are doing amazing, high-impact work on atomistic modeling of SARS-CoV-2 in a respiratory droplet, and sea-spray aerosols and toxic gases near the border.
I'm reviewing applications for a faculty award, and it's pretty obvious that many people are using AI to draft letters of support. The same words and phrases keep showing up that I have seen when I use it myself! 😂 rigor/rigorous, pioneering, visionary, sustained innovation, unequivocally endorse
We treat respiratory infections like the cold and flu as minor nuisances. The evidence increasingly suggests they’re anything but. I'm excited to be an advisor for Intercept, a $500M bet to make them a thing of the past. interceptfund.substack.com/p/e9438538-4...
Intercept
Intercept is a $500M philanthropic initiative that will catalyze the development and deployment of the technologies needed to radically reduce the burden of respiratory infections, and eventually elim...
interceptfund.substack.com
Intercept is placing a big bet on making common respiratory infections not so common. Note: I'm on the Intercept advisory board. www.technologyreview.com/2026/06/24/1...
Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI are backing an effort to stop respiratory infections
Intercept, a new nonprofit, will focus on countering the common cold and the flu.
technologyreview.com
We gave a sneak preview of our clean air system for buildings at the @arpa-h.bsky.social BREATHE Demo Day. All the credit goes to Rajan Chakrabarty et al. at WashU, Madhav Marathe et al. at UVA, and Chris Cappa + Theresa Pistochini et al. at UC Davis. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/s...
Buildings May Soon Have ‘Immune Systems’ That Fight Airborne Disease
nytimes.com
Congratulations to my postdoc Thuong Cao for her new paper (from her PhD) showing that fog droplets have a unique microbiome, enriched in methylobacteria that "eat" formaldehyde. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... gizmodo.com/fog-is-teemi...
Fog Is Teeming With Life—But What It Eats Is the Weird Part
The ratio of water to microbial life in fog rivals that of oceans and lakes, new research has found. Sounds gross, but it's actually good news.
gizmodo.com
Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social just interviewed Don Milton @donmilton.bsky.social about our paper in @bmj.com on #hantavirus and the need for airborne precautions. substack.com/@erictopol/n...
Assessment of the Hantavirus with Prof Donald Milton
A recording from Eric Topol's live video
substack.com
Spot on, from @linseymarr.bsky.social, as always: --> “I don’t understand why we are so reluctant to acknowledge the inhalation route when we’re talking about person-to-person transmission" [1/2] www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/h...
Hantavirus Doesn’t Spread Easily, but Officials May Be Downplaying Risks
nytimes.com
It's widely accepted that hantavirus transmits from rodent excreta to humans via inhalation of aerosolized virus, so I don't understand why we're so reluctant to acknowledge the inhalation route for human-to-human transmission. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/h...
Hantavirus Doesn’t Spread Easily, but Officials May Be Downplaying Risks
nytimes.com
I spoke about the potential for airborne transmission of hantavirus, and Josh Santarpia talked about the National Quarantine Unit. I visited it last year; it's a critical resource for the country. @virginiatech.bsky.social @pppda.bsky.social
Tanya Lewis@tanyalewis.bsky.social · 3mo agoThe hantavirus outbreak is reviving questions about airborne transmission from the early days of COVID. Hantavirus is not COVID, but we shouldn't rule out the possibility that it can spread through the air. My story @sciam.bsky.social 🧪 www.scientificamerican.com/article/can-...
I'm trying out some small CO2 monitors for an upcoming experiment. Aranet4 $190, Inkbird Plus $43, Vitalight $40, Airspot $163 (received free) agree, but I need to try at higher levels. NDIR sensors are good to within 50 ppm. Tradeoffs: price, size, battery life, connectivity.
This article has quality content about the very low risk of hantavirus leading to a pandemic. Should you be worried? No, unless you're on the cruise ship or have close interactions with someone who came off it. www.today.com/health/news/...
Could the Hantavirus Lead to a Pandemic? Experts Explain the Risk Level
An outbreak of hantavirus has killed three on a cruise ship. Should you be worried? What to know about the Andes strain, how it spreads and symptoms.
today.com
Note that close contact behavior does not rule out transmission by inhalation of virus. Hantavirus load in exhaled respiratory particles may be low, or virus may not survive well, so extended exposure duration is required. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Review of biosensing technologies for detecting airborne pathogens, led by Rajan Chakrabarty with small contributions from me. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... funded by @arpa-h.bsky.social
Airborne pathogen detection using electrochemical biosensors: Research status and future directions
Airborne pathogens pose a significant public health challenge. The ability to detect them efficiently and provide actionable data to mitigate risk in …
sciencedirect.com
"the crew frequently cleans hand rails and other high-contact surfaces" but are they also opening the windows and filtration-maxxing? www.nytimes.com/2026/05/06/w...
Hantavirus Cruise Ship Remains at Sea as Leaders Clash Over Its Docking
nytimes.com
There is some evidence of person-to-person transmission of the Andes species of hantavirus. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Kai Kupferschmidt@kakape.bsky.social · 3mo agoI've spent yesterday and today talking to researchers across the globe trying to understand the hantavirus outbreak aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius. My story in @science.org is here (and some threaded thoughts coming): www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪 #IDsky
Does hantavirus spread person-to-person in rare cases? www.wsj.com/world/human-... A review from 2022 did not find evidence of it. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC....
Human-to-Human Transmission of Hantavirus May Have Occurred on Cruise Ship
The suspected outbreak has led to three deaths and four infections on passenger vessel, the World Health Organization said.
wsj.com
I received a couple of anonymous "thank an advisor" messages from students @virginiatech.bsky.social today. It's one of the best feelings in the world to know that I have had a positive impact on a young person's academic and personal journey.
@corsiaq.bsky.social and I wrote a viewpoint on Indoor Air Quality: An Overdue Awakening addressing 1. policies for public vs. private spaces 2. ultrapure vs. "clean enough" air 3. simple vs. complex solutions @arpa-h.bsky.social pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Indoor Air Quality: An Overdue Awakening
pubs.acs.org
doi.org/10.1021/acse... Thorough retrospective and touching tribute by John's long time collaborator, Rick Flagan (H/T @ryanward.bsky.social)
John Seinfeld─The Atmospheric Engineer Who Cleared the Air
John Seinfeld is one of the most important and influential atmospheric scientists and engineers of the last 60 years. As a young chemical engineering professor, who had just defended his thesis on the...
doi.org
Do I know anyone who has a UV-based SO2 analyzer (e.g., Thermo 43C, 43i) that can go down to 50 ppb? Looking to borrow one for a few months.
Our paper "Controlled human influenza infection reveals heterogeneous expulsion of infectious virus into air" is now published in Cell. Free access until 8 May 2026 at authors.elsevier.com/c/1mo9AL7PXy... #FluLab
Postdoc opening: Geostationary measurements of atmospheric chemistry Join us! Our group seeks a postdoc to work on space-based measurements of atmospheric chemistry with the new generation of geo-IR satellite instruments. See z.umn.edu/b5iz for details & contact me (dbm@umn.edu) with questions!
PostdocAd-GXS
Postdoctoral Associate: Geostationary measurements of atmospheric chemistry Join us! Our atmospheric chemistry group at the University of Minnesota (UMN) is seeking applications for a Postdoctoral A...
z.umn.edu
