Mr Alan Calder

Contact

About
Teaching and learning
Research

About

Over 5 years' experience teaching skills at Undergraduate level and over ten years' prior experience working in industry within accredited analytical labs. Member of the Royal Society of Biology and RSB Chartered Biologist (CBiol). Accredited UKPSF instructor to the level of Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (FHEA).

National Health Service (screening)                                           May 2011 - July 2013

Analytical Laboratory based positions held within an international, accredited life science company:

GCMS Trace Residues Analyst                                                 Jan 2007 - Dec 2010

SNP Technical Development Team (Bowel cancer)                  Aug 2006 - Jan 2007

Genotyping Analyst (SNP analysis)                                         June 2005 - Aug 2006

DNA Analyst (Forensic STR analysis - DNA database)           Nov 2000 - June 2005

Molecular Biology Technician (Method validation)                   Dec 1996 - Nov 2000

Academic responsibilities

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Qualifications

  • BSc Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • Applied Biology

Teaching and learning

A critical role working alongside fellow academics to effectively deliver undergraduate curricula within the School of Life sciences, Pharmacy and Chemistry.

  • Instructor across five undergraduate Bioscience modules.
  • Lead instructor for undergraduate and foundation microscopy and microbiology lab classes.
  • Leading workshops and class tutorials.
  • Providing support to students in relation to academic skills.

Qualifications and expertise

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Undergraduate courses taught

Research

My current research areas are microbiology, genetics, bioinformatics and molecular biology. During my time at Kingston, I have been involved in a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) research projects investigating pathogen evolution and the molecular mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance. Research results were presented at the International Pathogenic Neisseria Conference (2016).

Churchward C?, Calder A, Snyder L, (2018) Mutations in Neisseria gonorrhoeae grown in sub-lethal concentrations of monocaprin do not confer resistance PLoSONE 13(4): doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195453

I have more recently worked a commensal Neisseria spp. bioinformatics project, published:

Calder A et al., Virulence genes and previously unexplored gene clusters in four commensal Neisseria spp. isolated from the human throat expand the neisserial gene repertoire. Microbial Genomics: doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000423

I am currently working on a project investigating a Type VI secretion system in commensal Neisseria spp.

Calder A, Snyder L, (2020) The type VI secretion system in Neisseria spp. (Abstract and poster) Access Microbiology. Volume 2, Issue 7A: doi.org/10.1099/acmi.ac2020.po0060

Areas of specialism

  • Bioinformatics
  • Microbiology
  • Genetics
  • Genomics

Social media

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