James Kitson
Science Lead And Team Manager For NGS And Bioinformatics
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolJames Kitson is a molecular ecologist and science lead with 17 years translating cutting-edge DNA/RNA methods into real-world solutions for pest management, plant health and biodiversity across academia, government and NGOs. Currently heading NGS and bioinformatics at Fera Science, he has built molecular diagnostics and sequencing pipelines—spanning qPCR, LAMP, metabarcoding and Illumina/Nanopore genomics—to detect pathogens, invasive species and biocontrol agents. His work combines fundamental questions about community assembly with applied surveillance (e.g., mapping Liberibacter in UK carrots), informing agriculture, forestry and restoration policy tied to UN and UK sustainability goals. A seasoned supervisor and collaborator, he has set up open molecular-diagnostics labs and mentors PhD projects across diverse ecosystems. Colleagues value his rare blend of hands-on lab expertise, computational skills and cross-sector partnership network.
10 years of coding experience
6 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelors, Zoology/Animal Biology, Bachelors, Zoology/Animal Biology at The University of EdinburghMasters, Taxonomy and Biodiversity, Masters, Taxonomy and Biodiversity at Imperial College LondonDoctor of Philosophy - PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of East Anglia
Github Skills (14)
biology9
protocols9
robotics9
phylogenetic-trees9
science8
bioconductor7
annotations7
bioinformatics6
microbiome6
taxonomy6
r6
metagenomics5
visualization5
inference2
Programming languages (2)
Github contributions (5)
James-Kitson/Biogeography
Dec 2015 - Jun 2018
Contributions:2 releases, 159 pushes, 1 branch in 2 years 6 months
NewcastleUni-NetworkEcologyGroup/Opentrons
Jun 2019 - Feb 2022
Contributions:136 commits, 293 pushes, 1 branch in 2 years 8 months
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