Professor Niall Logan

Professor of Microbiology

Profile:

I was awarded my PhD in the Department of Bacteriology, University of Bristol in 1980, and spent two years in the same department as a Post Doctoral research assistant. I moved to Glasgow in 1981 as a Lecturer in Microbiology, and am now Professor of Systematic Bacteriology and working part-time. I am an expert on the classification and identification of members of the genus Bacillus and relatives, a group of spore-forming bacteria that includes agents of food spoilage and food poisoning, the agent of anthrax, insect pathogens, and sources of industrial enzymes. I am the Chairman of the International Committee on the Systematics of Prokaryotes Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of the Genus Bacillus and Related Organisms, a member of the International Committee on the Systematics of Prokaryotes, and a member of that committee’s Judicial Commission on Prokaryote Nomenclature. I have travelled extensively, with working visits to Antarctica, Bangladesh, Brazil, Iceland, Kuwait, USA and various European and Scandinavian countries. I write for several medical microbiology and systematic bacteriology reference books, including Topley and Wilson’s Microbiology and Microbial Infections, the ASM Manual of Clinical Microbiology and Bergey’s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology, have edited specialist microbiology texts, and have been on the editorial boards of several British microbiology journals. I am a Fellow of the Society of Biology and member of the Society for General Microbiology and the Society for Applied Microbiology.

Research Interests:

My research has concentrated on identification of aerobic endosporeforming bacteria from opportunistic infections, foods, and industrial environments, and classification of new species isolated from Antarctica. Recently, work has begun on the aerobic endosporeforming flora of a Scottish loch sediment core that reaches back to the Ice Age. Other research has included studies microbial diversity in acidified upland lochs, on contact lens contamination and disinfection, and he is currently investigating bacterial pathogens in coastal farm effluents.

Teaching Interests:

My teaching concentrates upon medical bacteriology, but includes bacterial systematics and applied microbiology.

Selected Recent Publications:

Logan, N. A. O. Berge, A. H. Bishop, H-J., Busse, P. De Vos, D. Fritze, M. Heyndrickx, P. Kämpfer, L. Rabinovitch Mirja S. Salkinoja-Salonen, L. Seldin, and A. Ventosa. (2009) Proposed minimal standards for describing new taxa of aerobic, endospore-forming bacteria. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 59, 2114-2121.
Logan, N. A. and P. De Vos. (2009) Bacillus. In P. De Vos, G.M. Garrity, D. Jones, N.R. Krieg, W.
Ludwig, F.R. Rainey, K.-H. Schleifer and W.B. Whitman (eds) Bergey's Manual of Systematic
Bacteriology, 2nd edn, Vol 3. Springer, New York pp. 21-128.
Halket, G., A. Dinsdale and N. A. Logan. (2010) Evaluation of the VITEK 2 BCL Card for identification of Bacillus species and other aerobic endosporeformers. Lett Appl Microbiol 50, 120-126.
Dinsdale, A. E., G. Forsyth, J. Heyrman, C. Van den Plas, A. Coorevits, P. De Vos and N. A. Logan. (2011) Emended descriptions of Geobacillus thermoleovorans and Geobacillus thermocatenulatus. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 61, 1802-1810.
Coorevits, A., N. A. Logan, A. E. Dinsdale, G. Halket, P. Scheldeman, M. Heyndrickx, P. Schumann, A. Van Landschoot, and P. De Vos (2011) Bacillus thermolactis sp. nov., isolated from dairy farms and emended description of Bacillus thermoamylovorans. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 61,1954-1961.
Heyndrickx, M., A. E. Dinsdale, L. Lebbe, M. Rodríguez-Diaz. Heyrman, P. Scheldeman, G.
Halket, N. A. Logan and P. De Vos. (2012) Emended descriptions of Bacillus sporothermodurans and Bacillus oleronius with the inclusion of dairy farm isolates of both species. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 62, 307-314.
Hoyles, L., H. Honda, N. A. Logan, G. Halket, R. M. La Ragione, A. L. McCartney. (2012) Recognition of greater diversity of Bacillus species and related bacteria in human faeces. Res Microbiol 163, 3-13.
Logan, N. A. (2012) Bacillus and relatives in food-borne illness. J Appl Microbiol 112, 417-429.
Logan, N. A., A. Hoffmaster, S. V. Shadomy & K. Stauffer. (2011) Bacillus and related genera. In Manual of Clinical Microbiology, 10th edn, Vol. 1. Edited by J. Versalovic, K. C. Carroll, G. Funke, J.
H Jorgensen, M. L Landry and D. W. Warnock. American Society for Microbiology, Washington D.
C., pp. 381-402.
Logan, N. A. & P. De Vos (eds) (2011) Aerobic, endospore-forming soil bacteria. Springer-Verlag,
Berlin.

Recent Funding:

My work has long been funded by bioMérieux, a French company that specialises in microbial diagnostics.

People:

I have supervised over a dozen research students. Currently, I supervise Mark Boyle whose project aims to set up a scientifically based protocol for the evaluation of realistic options for the abatement of environmental impacts of the zoonotic pathogen contents of livestock wastes. This is in collaboration with the School of the Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University.
I have a long-term collaboration with Prof. Paul De Vos at the University of Gent in Belgium, and have also collaborated with many colleagues around the world.

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