David Bass
Molecular Biologist
David is Principal Investigator of the Defra aquatic animal health evidence and research/development projects at Cefas, and leads the Sustainable Seafood pillar of the Defra-funded Ocean Countries Partnership Programme (OCPP). He is also OCPP Bangladesh country lead, building on previous aquaculture/animal health projects in Bangladesh over the past six years. He is currently developing strategies for genomics and eDNA at Cefas, and promotes the pathobiome concept and environmental microbiology as key developing areas in aquatic animal health. He leads work on animal health, pathogens, and microbial ecology in the Sustainable Aquaculture Futures centre, run by Cefas and Exeter University, where he is an Honorary Associate Professor.
Before joining Cefas in 2014, David led a research group at the Natural History Museum (London) in microbial evolution and ecology. He undertook his DPhil and postdoctoral research at Oxford University, following an MSc there, after a BSc at the Open University. David uses diverse research methods to understand aquatic animal, seaweed, and plant health, and the environments in which these organisms live. He has long experience and diverse expertise in molecular phylogenetics, environmental DNA (eDNA) methods for pathogen surveillance and environmental monitoring, molecular taxonomy and diagnostics, biodiversity and parasitology, and molecular (including ‘omics and bioinformatic) techniques for studying pathogens, microbiomes, and pathobiomes. He has written >130 peer-reviewed publications, >13.1K citations, H-index 52.
Email: david.bass@cefas.gov.uk
