Telephone: + 44 (0)1631 559349
E-mail: jgd@sams.ac.uk

John Day is Head of the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP) and Curator of the freshwater algal and protozoan sections of the CCAP.   He has published 70 papers & chapters (42 in ISI listed journals) and 52 Contract Reports. He has wide ranging interests in algae and protozoa and current interests include: Biological Resource Centres (BRCs), cryopreservation, cryoinjury, algal stress physiology, algal biotechnology, application of molecular method in culture collections, bioinformatics and networking.

Specific scientific interests

• Cryopreservation of protists and cyanobacteria
• Mechanisms of cryo-induced injuries in protists
• Pheno- and geno-typic stability of conserved protistan strains
• Algal Biofuels
• Heterotrophic culture of microalgae
• BRC networking

Current projects

Culture Collection of  Algae and Protozoa (CCAP)

Biomara

Teaching / supervising activities

Lecturer on UHI Marine Science degree (Applied phycology/ Microalgal biotechnology)

I  am currently supervising two PhD students and one MSc student:

Carole Shellcock   (PhD)

Adrian Macleod   (PhD)

Cecilia RadMenendez (MSc by Research)

I have supervised  3 successful PhD students registered at Univ Abertay Dundee (2), Univ Lancaster (1)

Publications 2005-2010
Day JG, Pröschold T, Friedl T, Lorenz M & Silva PC (2010) Conservation of microalgal type material: approaches needed for 21st century science. Taxon 59, 3-6.

Müller H., Achilles-Day U.E.M. and Day J.G. (in press) Tolerance of the resting cysts of Colpoda inflata (Ciliophora, Colpodea) and Meseres corlissi (Ciliophora, Spirotrichea) to desiccation and freezing. E. J. Protistol.

Achilles-Day U.E.M., Pröschold T. and Day J.G. (2008) Phylogenetic position of the freshwater ciliate, Euplotes daidaleos (Diller,WF & Kounaris, D, 1966) within the Family of Euplotidae, obtained from Small Subunit rRna Gene Sequence. Denisia 23, 411-416.

Day JG and Harding K (2008) Cryopreservation Protocols for Working Laboratories: Lower plants: Algae. In:  Plant Cryopreservation: A Practical Guide. Reed B.M. (ed), Springer, Dordrecht.  pp 95-116.

Day J.G. and Stacey G.N. (2008) Biobanking. Molecular Biotechnology 40, 202-213.

Day, J.G., Harding, K., Nadarajan, J. and Benson, E.E. (2008) Cryopreservation: Conservation of bioresources at ultra-low temperatures. In: Molecular Biomethods Handbook 2nd Edition, John M Walker and Ralph Rapley (eds). Humana Press.  pp 915-945.

Elster J., Lukavský J., Harding K., Benson E.E. and Day J.G. (2008) Deployment of the encapsulation/dehydration protocol to cryopreserve polar microalgae held at the Czech Republic Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany. CryoLetters 29, 27-28.

Harding K., Müller J., Lorenz M., Timmerman H., Friedl T., Day J.G. and Benson E.E. (2008) Deployment of the encapsulation/dehydration protocol to cryopreserve microalgae held at Sammlung von Algenkulturen, Universität Göttingen Germany. CryoLetters 29, 15-20.

Lukešová A., Hrouzek P., Harding K, Benson EE and Day JG (2008) Deployment of the encapsulation/dehydration protocol to cryopreserve diverse microalgae held at the Institute of Soil Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. CryoLetters 29, 21-26.

Müller H., Achilles-Day U.E.M. and Day J.G. (2008) Cryopreservation of resting cysts of the freshwater ciliate Meseres corlissi by conventional two-step methods and one-step vitrification protocols. CryoLetters 29, 329-338.

Benson EE, Harding K and Day JG (2007) Algae at extreme low temperatures: the cryobank. In: Algae and Cyanobacteria in Extreme Environments. Sechback, J. (ed). Springer, Dordrecht, NL, pp 365–383.

Day, J.G. (2007) Cryopreservation of Microalgae and Cyanobacteria. In: Day JG & Stacey GN (eds) Cryopreservation and Freeze-drying Protocols. Humana Press.  pp139-149.

Day J.G., Achilles-Day U., Brown S. and Warren A. (2007) Cultivation of algae and protozoa. In: manual of environmental microbiology. Hurst C.J., Kudsen G.R., McInerney M.J., Stezenbach L.D. and Walter M.V. (eds). ASM Press, Washington DC. pp 79-92.

Day J.G. and Stacey G.N. (Eds) (2007) Cryopreservation and Freeze-drying protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology  Humana Press Inc. Totowa, NJ. 348 pp.

Day J.G., Lorenz L., Wilding, T., Friedl T., Harding, K., Pröschold, T.,  Brennan, D., Müller, J., Santos, L.M.A., Santos, M.F.,  Osório H.C., Amaral R., Elster, J., Lukavský, J.,  Lukešová, A., Hrouzek, P., Lukes, M., Probert, I., Ryan, M.J  and Benson E.E.  (2007) The use of physical and virtual infrastructures for the validation of algal cryopreservation methods in international culture collections. CryoLetters 28, 357-376.

Gachon CMM, Day JG, Campbell CN, Pröschold T Saxon R and Küpper FC (2007) The culture collection of algae and protozoa (CCAP): a biological resource for protistan and cyanobacterial genomics. GENE 406, 51-57.

Müller J,  Day JG, Harding K, Hepperle D, Lorenz M and Friedl T (2007) Assessing genetic stability of a range of terrestrial microalgae after cryopreservation using amplified fragment length polymorphism (aflp) Am J Bot 94, 799-808.

Stacey, G.N., Day, J.G. (2007) Long-term ex situ conservation of Biological Resources and the role of Biological Resource Centres. In: Day JG & Stacey GN (eds) Cryopreservation and Freeze-drying Protocols. Humana Press. pp 1-14.

Williamson P and Day JG (2007) The problem with protists:  is barcoding the answer? The Biologist 54, 86-90.

Fleck RA, Pickup RW, Day JG and Benson EE (2006) The use of flow-cytometry and cryomicroscopy to characterise cryopreservation-induced injuries in Euglena gracilis. Cryobiology 52, 261-268.

Johnstone C., Benson E.E., Day J.G. and Staines  H. (2006) The development of a 2,2’–azinobis-(3-ethyl-benzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical cation decolourisation assay for evaluating total antioxidant status in an alga used to monitor environmental impacts in urban aquatic habitats. Ecological Indicators 6, 770-779.

Johnstone C., Day J.G., Staines  H. and Benson E.E., (2006) An in vitro oxidative stress test for determining pollutant tolerance in algae. Ecological Indicators 6, 280-289.

Hédoin H., Pearson J., Day J.G., PhilipD., Young A.J. and Hall T.J. (2006) Porphyridium cruentum A-408 and Planktothrix A-404 retain their capacity to produce biotechnologically exploitable metabolites after cryopreservation. J. appl. Phycol. 18, 1-7.
 
Benson E.E., Harding K., Johnston J. and Day J.G. (2005) From ecosystems to cryobanks: the role of cryo-conservation in the preservation and sustainable utilization of global phyto-diversity. In: Contributing to a sustainable future: Proceedings of the Australian Branch of the IAPTC&B. pp 30-44. Bennett I.J., Bunn H., Clarke H. and McComb J.A. (eds). IAPTC&B, Perth, Western Australia.

Day J.G. (2005) Cryopreservation and the problem of freeze-recalcitrance, in algal culture collections. In: Culture Collections and Environmental Research. pp 73-86. Kasai F., Kaya K., and Watanabe M.M.(eds). Tokai University Press, Tokyo.

Day JG and Brand JJ (2005) Cryopreservation Methods for Maintaining Cultures. In: Algal Culturing Techniques. Andersen R.A. (ed.) Academic Press, New York. pp165-187.

Day J.G., Benson E.E., Harding K., Knowles B., Idowu M., Bremner D., Santos L., Santos F., Friedl T., Lorenz M., Lukesova A., Elster J., Lukavsky J., Herdman M., Rippka R. and Hall T. (2005) Cryopreservation and conservation of microalgae: the development of a pan-european scientific and biotechnological resource (the COBRA project). CryoLetters 26, 231-238.

Lorenz M, Friedl T & Day JG (2005) Perpetual Maintenance of Actively Metabolizing Microalgal Cultures. In: Algal Culturing Techniques. Andersen R.A. (ed.)  Academic Press, New York. pp145-155.

Love, G.D., Bowden, S.A., Summons, R. E., Jahnke, L.L., Snape CE, Campbell, C.N. & Day, J.G., (2005) An optimised catalytic hydropyrolysis method for the rapid screening of microbial cultures for lipid biomarkers. Organic Geochemistry 36, 63-82.

Müller J., FriedlT., Hepperle D., Lorenz M. and Day J.G. (2005) Distinction of isolates among multiple strains of Chlorella vulgaris (Chlorophyta, Trebouxiophyceae) and Testing Conspecificity with Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism and ITS rdna sequences. J. Phycol. 41, 1236-1247.
 

Full publication list

Other

•    2007 - 2010     Co editor in chief European Journal of Phycology
•    2007 - 2010     Ex officio member of British Phycological Society Council
•    2005 - 2008     General Secretary of the Society for Low Temperature Biology
•    2003 -2006      Editorial Board CryoLetters.
•    2000 - to date  Reviewing Editor In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol.
•    2002 - 2003     Trustee SLTB Charitable Trust
•    1997 - 2001     Secretary of the UK Federation of Culture Collections
•    1997 - 1998     Member of Culture Collection of Marine Phytoplankton (CCMP) Advisory Board (Maine,    USA)