Personal profile
Contact Info
James McDonald is Professor of microbial ecology at Bangor University.
Current research themes include microbiome analysis of biomass-degrading microorganisms for biofuels and biotechnology, high-throughput methods for the detection of human pathogens in aquatic environments, and microbiome analysis of the complex tree disease, Acute Oak Decline.
His group applies a combination of microbiological culture techniques and contemporary ‘omics’ technologies (e.g. genomics, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics) to address these research themes.
Location: 2nd Floor ECW Building
Tel: +44 (0)1248 383077
Personal webpage: https://www.jamesmcdonaldlab.com/
Related documents
Education/Academic qualification
Postgraduate, PhD, Microbial Ecology, University of Liverpool
Undergraduate, BSc, Microbiology with Industrial Experience, University of Manchester
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
-
SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
Fingerprint
- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
-
Microbial communities in semi-mature oak trees are resilient to drought, nutrient limitation, and pathogen challenge
Hussain, U., Cambon, M. C., Crampton, B., Subramaniam, S., Kajamuhan, A., Ordoñez, A., Downie, J., Finch, J., Beckmann, M., Brown, N., Elison, A., Brady, C., Vanguelova, E., Denman, S. & McDonald, J. E., 11 Feb 2026, In: Cell host & microbe. 34, 2, p. 344-358.e5 344-358.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Anaerozeibacter quisquiliarum gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel mesophilic bacterium isolated from a laboratory-scale methanogenic landfill bioreactor digesting maize, and proposal of Anaerozeibacteraceae fam. nov., representing a new family within the order Eubacteriales.
El Houari, A., Carpenter, M., Chaplin, D., Golyshin, P. & McDonald, J., 10 Dec 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology. 75, 12Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile3 Downloads (Pure) -
Evaluating agar-plating and dilution-to-extinction isolation methods for generating oak-associated microbial culture collections
Ordonez Ordonez, A., Hussain, U., Cambon, M., Golyshin, P., Downie, J. & McDonald, J., 11 Feb 2025, In: ISME Communications. 5, 1, ycaf019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Multi-scale influences on Escherichia coli concentrations in shellfish: From catchment to estuary
Malham, S., Taft, H., Farkas, K., Ladd, C., Seymour, M., Robins, P., Jones, D. L., McDonald, J., Le Vay, L. & Jones, L., 1 Feb 2025, In: Environmental Pollution. 125476.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) clamps reduce amplification of host chloroplast and mitochondria rRNA gene sequences and increase detected diversity in 16S rRNA gene profiling analysis of oak-associated microbiota
Hussain, U., Downie, J., Ellison, A., Denman, S., McDonald, J. & Cambon, M. C., 28 Jan 2025, In: Environmental Microbiome. 20, 14.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile19 Downloads (Pure)
Impacts
-
Adoption of viral environmental surveillance tools to protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic [REF2021]
Jones, D. (Participant), McDonald, J. (Participant), Farkas, K. (Participant), Malham, S. (Participant), Le Vay, L. (Participant), Jago, C. (Participant), Robins, P. (Participant) & Jones, J. (Participant)
Impact: Economic, Environmental, Health/Quality of life, Policy and Public Services
Projects
- 23 Finished
-
HEFCW HEIR bridging funding for R44R06 / F008297 (BB/T011076/1)
McDonald, J. (PI)
1/05/21 → 31/08/21
Project: Research
-
HEFCW HEIR bridging funding for R44R13/ F008616 (BB/T01069X/1)
McDonald, J. (PI)
1/05/21 → 1/08/22
Project: Research
-
FUTURE OAK: Engineering the oak microbiome to future-proof an arboreal icon
McDonald, J. (PI)
1/09/20 → 19/08/25
Project: Research
-
-
Activities
- 1 Other
-
BU-IIA Funded Project: Exploring technology transfer options for microbial bioaugmentation of anaerobic waste biomass conversion to biogas
McDonald, J. (Contributor), Jones, D. (Contributor), Golyshin, P. (Contributor) & Iakounine, A. (Contributor)
1 Apr 2022 → 31 Mar 2023Activity: Other
Datasets
-
Elution and concentration of viruses from sediments
Farkas, K. (Creator), McDonald, J. E. (Creator), Malham, S. K. (Creator) & Jones, D. L. (Creator), ZENODO, 20 Dec 2018
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.2453575, https://zenodo.org/record/2453575
Dataset