Breathe Haven

A research study funded by the Advanced Research Project Agency-Health (ARPA-H) to explore the link between a home’s microbiome and the occupants’ respiratory health

400
Target Homes
~1,600
Target Samples
20 Million
Reads per Sample
In Progress
Sequencing Status

About the Project

Building design, operation and occupation patterns impact our exposure to microbes. US housing stock, however, was not designed, nor does it operate to control hazardous or beneficial microbial exposures. Understanding and acting upon the nexus between microbial communities, human health, and the built environment is a primary challenge toward improving human well-being. The Breathe Haven team seeks to develop a quantitative metric that indicates the human respiratory health risks or benefits of a home's microbiome. Development of the Healthy Building Microbiome Index (HBMI) starts with a cohort of homes from locations in Southern, CT USA. Healthy versus unhealthy status will be assigned from direct occupant respiratory health assessments including spirometry, breath metabolomics, and respiratory questionnaires. Occupant health status is paired with intensive building microbiome and building feature characterization using a variety of statistical, machine learning, and deep learning computational methods to produce our index. Such an index can be used to promote rational approaches for building design and operation that improve our well-being.

This research is conducted by the Peccia Lab at Yale University.

Database Status as of

Home Microbiome Samples

1

Samples sequenced

Occupant Spirometry Scores

0

Scores collected

Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire

0

Questionnaires completed

EBC Samples

0

Samples collected

Study Design: Sampling 400 homes total (Phase 1: 50 homes, Phase 2: 350 homes) with 2 dust samples and 2 water samples per home for metagenomic sequencing, targeting ~1,600 total metagenomic samples

Database Sample

Preview of taxonomic classification data (Kaiju results)

Sample Phylum Genus Species Reads Percent
SRR27126187 Basidiomycota Schizophyllum S. commune 92,555 3.33%
SRR27126187 Basidiomycota Pyrrhoderma P. noxium 20,241 0.73%
SRR27126187 Basidiomycota Irpex I. rosettiformis 20,189 0.73%
SRR27126187 Basidiomycota Phlebiopsis P. gigantea 19,528 0.70%
SRR27126187 Basidiomycota Irpex I. lacteus 15,638 0.56%

128,958 total records available in the database

Retrieve Data

Access microbiome, health, and building data through our database interface

Microbiome Data

  • Reads
  • Taxonomy

Health Data

  • Spirometry
  • Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire
  • EBC

Building Data

  • Sensor data
  • Building survey data
Access Database

Contact

For more information about the Breathe Haven project:

Peccia Lab
Yale University
Principal Investigator: Jordan Peccia
Email: jordan.peccia@yale.edu
Lab: peccialab.yale.edu