Dr Christopher van der Gast

Current work

I am a Project Leader and Senior Scientific Officer within the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) where I specialise in fundamental and applied microbial ecology. My fundamental work is focused on better understanding and predicting how microbial communities assemble and develop, and how microorganisms are distributed across different spatial and temporal scales; in essence unravelling the complexity of microbial communities in their natural environments.

I have achieved this by exploiting and adapting models, theories, and principles from general ecology, coupled with ever improving molecular methodologies. This has been previously lacking in microbial ecology and I am internationally recognised as being at the forefront of this new pioneering way of thinking, leading to many high profile and influential publications.

I have extended this approach into clinical research, specifically chronic respiratory infections, by studying human pathogens and the communities they are part of set within an ecological framework. My work to date strongly supports the notion that the application of ecological approaches may similarly provide fresh insights into many other clinical scenarios. 

My applied work has always been strongly innovative and knowledge exchange-driven, working closely with end-user beneficiaries. From my D.Phil. research to current date, this has mainly centred upon developing novel and effective biological technologies to treat environmentally toxic / high pollution load industrial wastewaters (primarily waste metalworking fluids); which led to my founding the NERC spin-out company, Microbial Solutions Limited, which continues to go from strength-to-strength, even in the current economic climate.

I successfully maintain these fundamental and applied research streams by having a strong stakeholder / customer focus, business and management skills (people and projects), and excellent communication and team working skills, plus an excellent understanding of both academic and business environments. 

My research is funded by NERC, BBSRC, EPSRC, DEFRA, and collaborative partners from industry.

Brief CV

Education

1997-2001: University of Oxford (University College), D.Phil. Title: Microbial dynamics of metalworking fluids.

BBSRC CASE studentship (CASE Partner - BP Castrol).

1993-1997: University of Teesside, B.Sc. (Hons) in Process Biotechnology (Grade 2:1).

1992-1993: University of Teesside, Diploma in Engineering Science (Pass with Distinction).

Employment

2005-Present: NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (Oxford / Wallingford). Senior Scientific Officer & Project Leader.

2001-2005: NERC Institute of Environmental Microbiology & Virology (Oxford). Higher Scientific Officer.

1997: British Biotech Pharmaceuticals Limited, (Oxford). Bioanalytical Scientist.   

1995-1996: British Biotech Pharmaceuticals Limited, (Oxford). Pharmaceutical Development Scientist.  

Professional experience (key points)

2008-Present: External advisor / expert to the UK Health & Safety Executive on Metalworking fluids.

2008-2012: Member of NERC Peer Review College.

2007-Present: Non-Executive Director Microbial Solutions Limited.

2007-Present: Editorial board member for Environmental Microbiology.

2007-Present: Editorial board member for Environmental Reports

Selected publications

van der Gast, C.J., Walker, A.W., Stressmann, F.A., Rogers, G.B., Scott, P., Daniels, T.W. et al. (2011) Partitioning core and satellite taxa from within cystic fibrosis lung bacterial communities. ISME J 5: 780-791.

van der Gast, C.J., Gosling, P., Tiwari, B., and Bending, G.D. (2011) Spatial scaling of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity is affected by farming practice. Environ Microbiol 13: 241–249.

Ager, D., Evans, S., Li, H., and van der Gast, C.J. (2010) Anthropogenic disturbance affects the structure of bacterial communities. Environ Microbiol 12: 670-678.

Oakley, B.B., Carbonero, F., van der Gast, C.J., Hawkings, R.J., and Purdy, K. (2010) Evidence for microbial niche separation, sympatric evolution, and biogeography in an unlikely system. ISME J 4: 488-497.

Rogers, G.B., Skelton, S., Serisier, D.J., van der Gast, CJ, and Bruce, K.D. (2010) Determining cystic fibrosis-affected lung microbiology: comparison of spontaneous and serially induced sputum samples by use of terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism profiling. J Clin Microbiol 48: 78-86.

van der Gast, C.J., Ager, D., and Lilley, A.K. (2008) Temporal scaling of bacterial taxa is influenced by both stochastic and deterministic ecological factors. Environ Microbiol 10: 1411-1418.

Woodcock, S., van der Gast, C.J., Bell, T., Lunn, M., Curtis, T.P., Head, I.M., and Sloan, W.T. (2007) Neutral assembly of bacterial communities. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 62: 171-180.

Prosser, J.I., Bohannan, B.J.M., Curtis, T.P., Ellis, R.J., Firestone, M.K., Freckleton, R.P., Green, J.L., Green, L.E., Killham, K., Lennon, J.J., Osborn, A.M., Solan, M., van der Gast, C.J., and Young, J.P.W. (2007) The role of ecological theory in microbial ecology. Nature Rev Microbiol 5: 384-392.

Field, D., Wilson, G., and van der Gast, C.J. (2006) How do we compare hundreds of bacterial genomes? Curr Opin Microbiol 9: 499-504.

van der Gast, C.J., Lilley, A.K., Ager, D., and Thompson, I.P. (2005) Island size and bacterial diversity in an archipelago of engineering machines. Environ Microbiol 7: 1220-1226.

Bell, T., Newman, J.A., Thompson, I.P., Lilley, A.K., and van der Gast, C.J. (2005) Bacteria and island biogeography. Science 309: 1998-1999.

Bell, T., Ager, D., Song, J.I., Newman, J.A., Thompson, I.P., Lilley, A.K., and van der Gast, C.J. (2005) Larger islands house more bacterial taxa. Science 308: 1884-1884.