Biological aerosol particles (also known as bioaerosols) are airborne particles that can be derived from virtually any biological processes and were some of the first types of aerosols to be studied. Bioaerosols are involved in a myriad of natural, environmental, agricultural, industrial, and human health processes and are the driving force behind many public health effects by causing a host of allergies and infectious diseases. Bioaerosols are also tremendously complex to study, and despite the long history of their investigation and their broad influence, numerous important questions remain unanswered. Key challenges in the study of bioaerosol include the inherent multi-disciplinarity of the work, often involving not only aerosol science, microbiology, atmospheric science, physics, chemistry, and engineering, but knowledge of building science, ventilation, sampling, human dynamics, medicine, public health, infectious diseases, botany and plant pathology, agriculture, advanced computational analysis, and countless other scientific disciplines. Differences can be further compounded by diversity among researchers with respect to discipline, training, experience, research goals, sources of funding, datasharing limitations, and security concerns. As a result of the broad diversity of researchers who apply themselves to bioaerosol questions, there is frequently a distinct lack of continuity to technical approaches, and these differences can make comparison across efforts challenging or impossible. As a part of the 2018 International Aerosol Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, the Bioaerosol Working Group of the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) convened a special session (9BA) dedicated to research challenges unique to the generation, sampling, and analysis of bioaerosols in both laboratory and field studies. Each presenter provided a very short review of key topics, followed by comments about community needs, experimental challenges, and nuances of which bioaerosol scientists should be aware. The session was highly attended, well received, and provided tremendous range of practical experience. At a follow-up meeting on the last day of the conference, leaders in various bioaerosol-associated research fields came together to further discuss how to encourage synergism of practices that would improve the quality and reproducibility of experimental results. Through these discussions it became evident that, due to the great diversity of applications and topics under the umbrella of bioaerosol research, there was a need to more fully discuss challenges that need to be addressed to achieve deeper synergism between individual investigators and the broader research community. The primary goal of this special issue is to address a need within the bioaerosol community: for better alignment in methodologies; to provide guidance on best-practices; to identify limitations, issues, common errors, or incorrect assumptions; and to encourage specific reporting on key concepts that are often overlooked in bioaerosol studies. The present special issue was conceptualized and eight authors were invited to contribute review and perspective articles surrounding topics to represent a broad spectrum of bioaerosol research activities and goals. The eight lead authors then each assembled an experienced and diverse team of scientists to complete their goal. The teams that completed these eight articles represent a sum 52 authors from 33 institutions in 13 countries, and represent a wide range of scientific backgrounds, disciplines, and training as well as diversity of gender, career stage, type of institution, and national culture. The diversity of perspectives assembled within the special issue is thus central to the goal of counteracting challenges introduced by the multi-disciplinarity and disconnectedness of researchers and communities. The articles cover sampling, assay, enumeration, and real-time sensing techniques; both indoor and outdoor field sampling; laboratory study; natural sources and experimental generation of bioaerosols; and appropriate reference standards. Each provides a different flavor of their respective topics, but common themes are present across the articles. In

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特刊“生物气溶胶研究：方法、挑战和前景”的前言

生物气溶胶颗粒（也称为生物气溶胶）是空气中的颗粒，几乎可以从任何生物过程中衍生出来，并且是最早要研究的气溶胶类型之一。生物气溶胶涉及无数的自然、环境、农业、工业和人类健康过程，并且通过引起一系列过敏和传染病成为许多公共卫生影响的驱动力。生物气溶胶的研究也极其复杂，尽管其研究历史悠久且影响广泛，但仍有许多重要问题没有得到解答。生物气溶胶研究的主要挑战包括工作固有的多学科性，通常不仅涉及气溶胶科学、微生物学、大气科学、物理、化学和工程，还涉及建筑科学、通风、采样、人体动力学、医学、公共卫生、传染病、植物学和植物病理学、农业、高级计算分析和无数其他科学学科。研究人员在学科、培训、经验、研究目标、资金来源、数据共享限制和安全问题方面的多样性可能进一步加剧差异。由于致力于生物气溶胶问题的研究人员的广泛多样性，技术方法通常明显缺乏连续性，这些差异可能使不同努力之间的比较具有挑战性或不可能。作为 2018 年美国密苏里州圣路易斯国际气溶胶会议的一部分，美国气溶胶研究协会 (AAAR) 的生物气溶胶工作组召开了一次特别会议 (9BA)，专门针对实验室和现场研究中生物气溶胶的生成、采样和分析所面临的独特研究挑战。每位演讲者都对关键主题进行了非常简短的回顾，然后就社区需求、实验挑战以及生物气溶胶科学家应注意的细微差别发表了评论。本次会议参加人数众多，反应热烈，并提供了广泛的实践经验。在会议最后一天的后续会议上，与生物气溶胶相关的各个研究领域的领导者齐聚一堂，进一步讨论如何鼓励实践的协同作用，以提高实验结果的质量和可重复性。通过这些讨论，很明显，由于生物气溶胶研究范围内的应用和主题的多样性，需要更充分地讨论需要解决的挑战，以实现个体研究人员和更广泛的研究界之间更深层次的协同作用。本期特刊的主要目标是解决生物气溶胶社区内的需求：更好地调整方法；提供最佳实践指导；识别限制、问题、常见错误或不正确的假设；并鼓励对生物气溶胶研究中经常被忽视的关键概念进行具体报告。本期特刊是概念化的，并邀请了八位作者围绕主题撰写评论和观点文章，以代表广泛的生物气溶胶研究活动和目标。然后，八位主要作者各自组建了一支经验丰富且多元化的科学家团队来完成他们的目标。完成这八篇文章的团队共有来自 13 个国家 33 个机构的 52 位作者，代表了广泛的科学背景、学科和培训以及性别、职业阶段、机构类型和民族文化的多样性。因此，特刊中汇集的多种观点对于应对由研究人员和社区的多学科性和不连贯性带来的挑战的目标至关重要。文章涵盖采样、分析、枚举和实时传感技术；室内外现场采样；实验室研究；生物气溶胶的天然来源和实验生成；和适当的参考标准。每篇文章都提供了各自主题的不同风格，但文章中存在共同的主题。在