Gwynne Mhuireach
Research Assistant Professor
Email: gwynhwyf@uoregon.edu
Phone: 541-346-4694
Office: 103 Pacific Hall
Research Interests: microbiome, healthy built environments, urban agriculture, food security, carbon footprint
Website: https://undesignme.com
Dr. Gwynne Mhuireach is a research assistant professor in the Institute for Health in the Built Environment at University of Oregon and a third-generation Oregon farmer, operating a regenerative diversified livestock farm on the outskirts of Eugene-Springfield. She has a multi-disciplinary background combining Biology, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture. Mirroring this broad range of experiences, Gwynne’s research interests revolve around the relationships between human and planetary health, focusing specifically on built environment microbiomes and urban food systems. Her past and current projects include explorations of urban grey and green aerobiomes, transfer of soil microbes to human skin during gardening, microbiomes of sustainable building materials (e.g., mass timber, earthen plaster), effects of short versus long food supply chains on food and the gut microbiome, and a multi-institutional collaboration to advance building-integrated agriculture.
Mhuireach, G., Langellotto, G., Fretz, M., Perry, A. C., & Jain, M., 2024. A Collaborative Multi-Disciplinary Design Studio Exploring Urban Building-Integrated Agriculture. Proceedings of Urban Food Systems Symposium. Presented at the Urban Food Systems Symposium, Columbus, OH.
Mhuireach, G.Á., Van Den Wymelenberg, K.G., Langellotto, G., 2023. Garden soil bacteria transiently colonize skin after direct soil contact. Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems.
Mhuireach, G.Á., Fahimipour, A.K., Vandegrift, R., Muscarella, M.E., Hickey, R., Bateman, A.C., Van Den Wymelenberg, K.G., Bohannan, B.J.M., 2023. Temporary establishment of bacteria from indoor plant leaves and soil on human skin. Environmental Microbiome.
Mhuireach, G.Á., Dietz, L.G., Gillett, T.H., 2022. One or many? Multi-species livestock grazing influences soil microbiome community structure and antibiotic resistance potential. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems.
Ishaq, S.L., Wissel, E.F., Wolf, P.G., Grieneisen, L., Eggleston, E.M., Mhuireach, G., Friedman, M., Lichtenwalner, A., Otero Machuca, J., Weatherford Darling, K., Pearson, A.L., Wertheim, F.S., Johnson, A.J., Hodges, L., Young, S.K., Nielsen, C.C., Kozyrskyj, A.L., MacRae, J.D., Myers, E.M., Kozik, A.J., Tussing-Humphreys, L.M., Trujillo, M., Daniel, G.A., Kramer, M.R., Donovan, S.M., Arshad, M., Balkan, J., Hosler, S., 2022. Designing the Microbes and Social Equity Symposium: A Novel Interdisciplinary Virtual Research Conference Based on Achieving Group-Directed Outputs. Challenges 13, 30.
Palacios-García, I., Mhuireach, G.A., Grasso-Cladera, A., Cryan, J.F. and Parada, F.J., 2022. The 4E approach to the human microbiome: Nested interactions between the gut-brain/body system within natural and built environments. BioEssays, p.2100249.
Nelson, M., Mhuireach, G.Á., Langellotto, G.A., 2022. Excess Fertility in Residential Scale Urban Agriculture Soils in Two Western Oregon Cities, USA. Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems.
Robinson, J.M. , Redvers, N., Camargo, A., Bosch, C.A., Breed, M.F., Brenner, L.A., Carney, M.A., Chauhan, A., Dasari, M., Dietz, L.G., Friedman, M., Grieneisen, L., Hoisington, A.J., Horve, P.F., Hunter, A., Jech, S., Jorgensen, A., Lowry, C.A., Mann, I., Mhuireach, G., Navarro-Pérez, E., Ritchie, E.G., Stewart, J.D., Watkins, H., Weinstein, P., Ishaq, S.L., 2022. Twenty important research questions in microbial exposure and social equity. mSystems, 7(1), pp.e01240-21.
Mhuireach, G.Á., Dietz, L., Horve, P., Griffiths, W., Laguerre, A., Northcutt, D., Vandegrift, R., Gall, E., Van Den Wymelenberg, K., 2021. Differing effects of four building materials on viable bacterial communities and VOCs. Developments in the Built Environment, p.100055.
Mhuireach, G.Á., Brown, G.Z., Kline, J., Manandhar, D., Moriyama, M., Northcutt, D., Rivera, I., Van Den Wymelenberg, K.G., 2020. Lessons learned from implementing night ventilation of mass in a next-generation smart building. Energy and Buildings 207, 109547.
Horve, P.F., Lloyd, S., Mhuireach, G.Á., Dietz, L., Fretz, M., MacCrone, G., Wymelenberg, K.V.D., Ishaq, S.L., 2019. Building upon current knowledge and techniques of indoor microbiology to construct the next era of theory into microorganisms, health, and the built environment. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 1.
Mhuireach, G.Á., Betancourt-Roman, C., Green, J.L., Johnson, B.R., 2019. Spatiotemporal controls on the urban aerobiome. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 7, 43.
Mhuireach, G.Á., Johnson, B.R., Altrichter, A.E., Ladau, J., Meadow, J.F., Pollard, K.S., Green, J.L., 2016. Urban greenness influences airborne bacterial community composition. Science of the Total Environment 571, 680–687.
Brown, G.Z., Kline, J., Mhuireach, G.Á., Northcutt, D., Stenson, J., 2016. Making microbiology of the built environment relevant to design. Microbiome 4.
Martin, L.J., Adams, R.I., Bateman, A., Bik, H.M., Hawks, J., Hird, S.M., Hughes, D., Kembel, S.W., Kinney, K., Kolokotronis, S.-O., Levy, G., McClain, C., Meadow, J.F., Medina, R.F., Mhuireach, G.Á., Moreau, C.S., Munshi-South, J., Nichols, L.M., Palmer, C., Popova, L., Schal, C., Täubel, M., Trautwein, M., Ugalde, J.A., Dunn, R.R., 2015. Evolution of the indoor biome. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 30, 223–232.
Kembel, S.W., Meadow, J.F., O’Connor, T.K., Mhuireach, G.Á., Northcutt, D., Kline, J., Moriyama, M., Brown, G.Z., Bohannan, B.J.M., Green, J.L., 2014. Architectural Design Drives the Biogeography of Indoor Bacterial Communities. PLoS ONE 9, e87093.
Meadow, J.F., Altrichter, A.E., Kembel, S.W., Kline, J., Mhuireach, G.Á., Moriyama, M., Northcutt, D., O’Connor, T.K., Womack, A.M., Brown, G.Z., Green, J.L.., Bohannan, B.J.M., 2013. Indoor airborne bacterial communities are influenced by ventilation, occupancy, and outdoor air source. Indoor Air 24, 41–48.
Mhuireach, G.Á., Bohannan, B.J.M., Brown, G.Z., Green, J.L., Jones, E., Kembel, S.W., Kline, J., Northcutt, D., Stenson, J., Womack, A.M., 2012. The relationship between ventilation energy use and indoor microbial communities, in: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Healthy Buildings. Presented at the Healthy Buildings 2012, Brisbane, Australia.