John McQuiston, PhD

Team lead, Special Bacteriology Reference Laboratory, Lead for MicrobeNet

John McQuiston, PhD, is the team lead for Special Bacteriology Reference Laboratory in the Bacterial Special Pathogens Branch within the Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology (DHCPP) at CDC and CDC’s lead for MicrobeNet. His team provides state-of-the-art reference identification of rare and unusual bacteria and is a major contributor to MicrobeNet.

Dr. McQuiston received his B.S. degree in 1988 in Recombinant Genetics from SUNY Fredonia in upstate New York, followed by M.S. degree from Virginia Tech in 1992 in Veterinary Medical Sciences, specializing in molecular genetics of Brucella species. After graduation, he worked as a technical specialist in recombinant vaccines of veterinary pathogens and molecular diagnostics at Virginia Tech’s Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases.

In 1998, he accepted a research fellowship at what is currently the Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch within the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases (DFWED) at CDC where his work focused on the development of a molecular identification scheme for serotyping Salmonella. Dr. McQuiston earned his Ph.D. in 2008 in evolutionary genetics of Salmonella from Emory University and was a research microbiologist in the National Enteric Reference Laboratory Team at CDC until January 2011, when he joined Bacterial Special Pathogens Branch within DHCPP.