About
Dave Johnston holds an Experimental Officer and Technical Manager position in the Biomedical Imaging Unit, Faculty of Medicine, where he is responsible for the Unit's range of light microscope systems (confocal, lightsheet, digital slide scanning, time-lapse, general photomicroscopy) and anything else that needs doing! The BIU specialises in multidimensional and correlative imaging across light, electron and X-ray imaging systems.
Other activities include:
- co-managing the Faculty's new International Summer School
- co-managing the Faculty's pilot volunteering scheme
- teaching and tutoring for the Faculty of Medicine and the School of Biological Sciences
- a wide range of outreach activities including designing and fabricating outreach materials for faculty members
- formal and informal supervision of BSC, MSC and PhD students using the BIU's facilities
He has an honorary contract with the University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and provides microscopy support for the Cellular Pathology Division, including technical support for implimentation of digital pathology as part of the national PathLAKE initiative.
Research
Current research
BIU staff do not undertake our own research, we support our users to get the best quality data by provides full support for the research pipeline from experimental design through to publication for a wide user base across the University, other universities and institutes, industry and artists.
Research projects
Active projects
Publications
Teaching
Tutor - Foundations of Medicine - Faculty of Medicine
Facillitator - Student Selective Unit 1 - Faculty of Medicine
Lecturer - Biomedical Parasitology - School of Biological Sciences
Biography
Dave Johnston graduated with a first class honours degree in Biology from the University of Southampton in 1982, majoring in cell biology, developmental biology and parasitology. He remained at Southampton for a PhD joint between Biology and the CRC Medical Oncology Unit at Southampton General Hospital in developmental cell biology which had a large component of cell culture and light microscopy (live cell imaging, histology and immunofluorescence).
This was followed by a 4 year postdoc RA position joint between Department of Cellular Pathology / Immunology at Guys Hospital and Deptment of Pathology at Royal Collede of Surgeons working on the immunology of Plasmodium vivax malaria in marmosets.
He then spent 17 years at the Natural History Museum (post doc RA, Wellcome Trust Fellow, temporary and permanent staff researcher) working on the molecular systematics of Schistosome blood flukes and their snail hosts. During this time he introduced DNA sequencing technology and services to the NHM (manual, automated gel and automated capillary sequencing) and served as Secretary to the WHO / UNDP Schistosoma Genome Project from inception to publication. He also taught on the joint NHM / Imperial Masters in taxonomy and systematics and supervised numerous BSc, MSc and PhD students.
He returned full circle to Southampton and to microscopy in 2007, with his current position.
Prizes
- Olympus Bioscapes Global Scientific Imaging Competition (2014)
- Nikon Small World Global Scientific Imaging Competition (2017)
- Best MSc project within microbiology (2008)
- Oliver Kite Memorial Prize (1982)