Dr Jonathan McQuillan
Biography
Dr McQuillan is a molecular biologist and expert in the field of autonomous sensors for marine biology including harmful microorganisms and eDNA. He leads NERC (NE/P010970/1) and BBSRC (BB/M025837/1) funded projects developing novel Lab on a Chip-based sensors for problematic aquatic microorganisms including water-borne pathogens, indicator bacteria and harmful algae.
He has successfully developed new and existing sensor technologies for environmental monitoring and for integration with a range of Marine Autonomous Systems (MAS) including USV and AUV platforms. He is an expert in quantitative bio-analytical assay development for novel target species. He also has an interest in new (chemical free) anti-biofouling methodlogies for the protection of oceanographic sensors and is working towards low power, environmentally 'firendly' solutions to the long term anti-fouling of deployed aquatic instrumentation.
Selected Publications
Jonathan S. McQuillan, Emma Stokes, Heidi Greonaga-Infante and Andrew M. Shaw (2012). Silver Nanoparticle Enhanced Silver Ion Stress Response in Escherichia coli K12. Nanotoxicology 6, 857–866.
Jonathan S. McQuillan and Andrew M. Shaw (2014). Whole-Cell Escherichia coli-based Bio-Sensor Assay for dual Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle Toxicity Mechanisms. Biosensors and Bioelectronics 51, 274–279.
Jonathan S. McQuillan and Andrew M. Shaw (2014). Differential gene regulation in the Ag nanoparticle and Ag(+)-induced silver stress response in Escherichia coli: a full transcriptomic profile. Nanotoxicology 8 Suppl 1:177–84.
Jonathan S. McQuillan, Peter Kille and Tamara Galloway (2014). The regulation of copper stress response genes in the polychaete Nereis diversicolor during prolonged extreme copper contamination. Environmental Science and Technology 48 (22), 13085–92.
Iordanis Magiopoulos, Jonathan S. McQuillan, Catherine L. Burd, Matthew C. Mowlem and Maria-Nefeli Tsaloglou (2016). A multi-parametric assessment of decontamination protocols for the subglacial Lake Ellsworth probe. Journal of Microbiological Methods 123, 87–93.
Jonathan S. McQuillan, David J. Hopper, Iordanis Magiopoulos, Matthew C. Mowlem, Robin Pascal and Douglas Connelly (2016). Buzz off! An evaluation of ultrasonic acoustic vibration for the disruption of microbial adhesion to submerged surfaces. Letters in Applied Microbiology 63 (3), 393–399.
Jonathan S. McQuillan and Julie Robidart (2017). Molecular-biological sensing in aquatic environments: recent developments and emerging capabilities. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 45, 43–50.
Jonathan S. McQuillan, Andrew Morris, Martin Arundell, Robin Pascal and Matthew C. Mowlem (2017). The anti-bacterial effect of an electrochemical anti-fouling method intended for the protection of miniaturised oceanographic sensors. Journal of Microbiological Methods 141, 63–66.
David I. Walker, Jonathan S. McQuillan, Michael Taiwo, Rachael Parks, Craig Stenton, Hywel Morgan, Matthew C. Mowlem and David N. Lees (2017). A highly specific E. coli qPCR and its comparison with existing methods for environmental waters. Water Research. In Press.
Christos-Moritz Loukas, Jonathan S. McQuillan, Florian Laouenan, Maria-Nefeli Tsaloglou, Jesus M. Ruano-Lopez and Matthew C. Mowlem (2017). Detection and Quantification of the Toxic Microalgae Karenia brevis using Lab on a Chip mRNA Sequence Amplification. Journal of Microbiological Methods 139, 189–195.
Roles Provided
Microbial Sensors, Molecular Biology, Lab on a Chip.
Publications
Alrefaey, Ahmed I. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3191-3545; McQuillan, Jonathan S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9725-3378; Schaap, Allison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5391-0516; Siracusa, Fabrizio; Cardwell, Christopher L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1305-4174; Walk, John; Rogers, Daniel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8340-874X; Forrester, Reuben ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0016-7420; Mowlem, Matthew C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7613-6121; Robidart, Julie C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9805-3570.
2025
A lab-on-a-chip system integrating DNA purification and loop-mediated isothermal amplification for the quantification of the toxic diatom Pseudo-nitzschia multistriata.
Sensors & Diagnostics, 5 (1).
63-75.
10.1039/d5sd00135h
2025
Article
Mowlem, Matthew; Abdi, Ehsan; Abualhaija, Rana; Alrefaey, Ahmed; Arundell, Martin; Briggs, Nathan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1549-1386; Bhuiyan, Wahida; Butement, Jonathan; Cardwell, Christopher L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1305-4174; Carvalho, Filipa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8355-4329; Catalano, Camile; Evans, Susan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1756-0568; Forrester, Reuben; Giering, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3090-1876; Gizeli, Electra; Glynne-Jones, Peter; Guidi, Lionel; Guo, Weili; Hanz, Rudolf ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2123-1599; Hartle Mougiou, Katherine; Hayes, Dan; Irisson, Jean-Olivier; Köser, Kevin; Lopez-Garcia, Patricia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4689-2775; Ludgate, Jake; Massot Campos, Miguel; McQuillan, Jon; Montresor, Marina; Moore, C. Mark; Morgan, Hywel; Masoudi, Mojtaba; Murphy, Caroline; Morris, Andrew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5465-411X; Nakath, David; Oxborough, Kevin; Papadimitriou, Efstathios; Patey, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8677-2818; Picheral, Marc; Regan, Fiona; Robidart, Julie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9805-3570; Siracusa, Fabrizio; Spenser, Dan; Schaap, Allison ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5391-0516; Schuback, Nina; Thornton, Blair; Valiadi, Martha; Walk, John; Weng, Xiangyu; Wilson, Euan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2371-9080.
2023
Technologies for Ocean Sensing project developments in imaging and sensing.
In: OCEANS 2023, Limerick, Ireland, 5-8 June 2023.
2023
Conference item
McQuillan, Jonathan S.; Morris, Andrew K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5465-411X; Arundell, Martin; Pascal, Robin; Mowlem, Matthew C..
2017
The anti-bacterial effect of an electrochemical anti-fouling method intended for the protection of miniaturised oceanographic sensors.
Journal of Microbiological Methods, 141.
63-66.
10.1016/j.mimet.2017.08.006
2017
Article
McQuillan, Jonathan S.; Robidart, Julie C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9805-3570.
2017
Molecular-biological sensing in aquatic environments: recent developments and emerging capabilities.
Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 45.
43-50.
10.1016/j.copbio.2016.11.022
2017
Article