Our team brings together decades of hands-on laboratory experience with active leadership in cutting-edge research and applied science. Our work spans ecology, conservation, molecular method development and validation, biosecurity, risk analysis, and data-driven environmental decision support.
Kingsbury, J.M., Laroche, O., Pochon, X., Zaiko, A., Lear, G., Weaver, L., Gaw, S., Masterton, H., Doake, F., Audrézet, F., Wallbank, J., Maday, S.D.M., Bridson, J.H., Abbel, R., Donaldson, L., Risani, R., Theobald, B., Dunlop, R., Northcott, G.L. & Pantos, O. (2026). Plastic physico-chemical properties shape the early marine plastisphere. Environmental Pollution, 390, 127532. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2025.127532
Pearman, J. K., Zaiko, A., Ståhlberg, A., Johansson, G., Håkansson, J., Filges, S., Scriver, M., Johansson, J. & von Ammon U. (2025). Ultrasensitive Sequencing (SiMSen-Seq) for Environmental DNA Applications. Environmental DNA, 7(6), e70216. https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.70216
Durán-Vinet, B., Stanton, J.-A. L., Jeunen, G.-J., von Ammon, U., Treece, J., Pochon, X., Zaiko, A., & Gemmell, N. J. (2025). CRISPR-based environmental biosurveillance assisted via artificial intelligence design of guide RNAs. Environmental DNA, 7, e70105. https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.70105
Williams, D.J., Hawkins, A., Hernandez, R.E., Mariano, G., Mathers, K., Buchanan, G., Stonier, B.J., Inkster, T., Leanord, A., Chalmers, J.D. & Thomson, N.R. (2025). Competitive behaviors in Serratia marcescens are coordinately regulated by a lifestyle switch frequently inactivated in the clinical environment. Cell host & microbe, 33(2), 252-266. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2025.01.001
Pochon, X., Bowers, H. A., Zaiko, A., & Wood, S. A. (2025). Advancing the environmental DNA and RNA toolkit for aquatic ecosystem monitoring and management. PeerJ, 13, e19119. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.19119
Reglinski, M., Hurst, Q.W., Williams, D.J., Gierlinski, M., Şahin, A.T., Mathers, K., Ostrowski, A., Bergkessel, M., Zachariae, U., Pitt, S.J. & Coulthurst, S.J. (2025). A widely-occurring family of pore-forming effectors broadens the impact of the Serratia Type VI secretion system. The EMBO Journal, 44(23), 6892. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44318-025-00587-x
McHugh, M.P., Aburajab, K., Maxwell, A., Anderson, J., Cairns, F., Cotton, S., Gough, A., Malloy, B., Mathers, K., Renwick, L. & • McHugh, M.P., Aburajab, K., Maxwell, A., Anderson, J., Cairns, F., Cotton, S., Gough, A., Malloy, B., Mathers, K., Renwick, L. (2025). Investigation of ceftriaxone-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae detected in Scotland, 2018–2024. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 101(8), 534-537. https://doi.org/10.1136/sextrans-2024-056405
von Ammon, U., Jeunen, G.-J., Laroche, O., Pochon, X., Gemmell, N. J., Stanton, J.-A. L., & Zaiko, A. (2025). Investigating passive eDNA samplers and submergence times for marine surveillance. PeerJ, 13, e19043. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.19043
Scriver, M., Zaiko, A., Pochon, X., Stanton, J.-A. L., Belonovich, O., Jeunen, G.-J., Thomas, A. C., Gemmell, N. J., & von Ammon, U. (2025). Biodiversity monitoring in remote marine environments: Advancing environmental DNA/RNA sampling workflows. Marine Environmental Research, 206, 107041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2025.107041
Olenin, S., Lukashanets, D., Zaiko, A., Samuiloviene, A., Olenina, I., Griniene, E., Politi, T., Šaškov, A., Kilmonaite, G., & Šiaulys, A. (2025). A dataset on environmental DNA, bacterio-, phyto- and zooplankton from an emerging periglacial lagoon in Svalbard, Arctic. Data in Brief, 58, 111260.
Katsanevakis, S., Zaiko, A., Olenin, S., Costello, M. J., et al. (2024). GuardIAS: Guarding European waters from invasive alien species. Management of Biological Invasions, 14(4), 701–730.
Scriver, M., von Ammon, U., Pochon, X., Zirngibl, M., Auderzet, F., Leonard, K., Pedersen, K., Bamford, N., Tahere, N., Stanton, J.-A. L., Gemmell, N. J., & Zaiko, A. (2024). Ebbs and flows of marine biodiversity: Navigating spatiotemporal patterns of environmental DNA in a coastal tidal ecosystem. Environmental DNA. https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.70039
Jarman, S., Ackermann, F., Marnane, M., Berry, O., Bunce, M., Dawkins, K., Furlan, E., Lukehurst, S., McDonald, J., Pochon, X., Wilkinson, S., Zaiko, A., & Harvey, E. (2024). Research horizons for invasive marine species detection with eDNA/eRNA. Biological Invasions, 26, 3715–3731.
Kotta, J., Ojaveer, H., Kaasik, A., Szava-Kovats, R., Nurkse, K., Outinen, O., Einberg, H., Zaiko, A., Lehtiniemi, M., Orav-Kotta, H., & Barboza, F. R. (2024). Universal framework for assessing the environmental impact of marine non-indigenous species in different situations of data availability. Hydrobiologia, 852, 2507–2519. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-024-05619-x
Zaiko, A., Cardeccia, A., Carlton, J. T., Clark, G. F., Creed, J. C., Davidson, I., Floerl, O., Galil, B., Grosholz, E., Hopkins, G. A., Johnston, E. L., Kotta, J., Marchini, A., Ojaveer, H., Rui, G., Therriault, T. W., & Inglis, G. J. (2024). Structural and functional effects of global invasion pressure on benthic marine communities: Patterns, challenges and priorities. Diversity and Distributions, 30, e13838.
Scriver, M., von Ammon, U., Pochon, X., Arranz, V., Stanton, J.-A. L., Gemmell, N. J., & Zaiko, A. (2024). Environmental DNA–RNA dynamics provide insights for effective monitoring of marine invasive species. Environmental DNA, 6(2), e531.
Tzeng, M. W., Floerl, L., Schattschneider, J., Floerl, O., Jeffs, A., & Zaiko, A. (2024). Quantifying the probability of a successful marine bioinvasion due to source-destination risk factors. Ecology and Evolution, 14, e10984.
Scriver, M., von Ammon, U., Youngbull, C., Pochon, X., Stanton, J.-A. L., Gemmell, N. J., & Zaiko, A. (2024). Drop it all: Extraction-free detection of targeted marine species through optimized direct droplet digital PCR. PeerJ, 12, e16969. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16969
Theobald, B., Risani, R., Donaldson, L., Bridson, J. H., Kingsbury, J. M., Pantos, O., Weaver, L., Lear, G., Pochon, X., Zaiko, A., Smith, D. A., Anderson, R., Davy, B., Davy, S., Doake, F., Masterton, H., Auderzet, F., Maday, S. D. M., Wallbank, J. A., Barbier, M., Greene, A. F., Parker, K., Harris, J., Northcott, G. L., & Abbel, R. (2024). An investigation into the stability and degradation of plastics in aquatic environments using a large-scale field-deployment study. Science of the Total Environment, 917, 170301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170301
Pochon, X., Laroche, O., von Ammon, U., & Zaiko, A. (2024). Filter no more: A modified plankton sampler for rapid in-water eDNA capture. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 15, 60–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14258
Durán-Vinet, B., Araya-Castro, K., Zaiko, A., Pochon, X., Wood, S. A., Stanton, J.-A. L., Jeunen, G.-J., Scriver, M., Kardailsky, A., Chao, T.-C., Ban, D. K., Moarefian, M., Aran, K., & Gemmell, N. J. (2023). CRISPR-Cas-based biomonitoring for marine environments: Toward CRISPR RNA design optimization via deep learning. The CRISPR Journal, 6(4), 316–324. https://doi.org/10.1089/crispr.2023.0019
von Ammon, U., Casanovas, P., Pochon, X., Zirngibl, M., Leonard, K., Smith, A., Chetham, J., Milner, D., & Zaiko, A. (2023). Harnessing environmental DNA to reveal biogeographical patterns of non-indigenous species for improved co-governance of the marine environment in Aotearoa New Zealand. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 17061. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-44258-5
Carvalho, S., Shchepanik, H., Aylagas, E., Berumen, M. L., Costa, F. O., Costello, M. J., … Zaiko, A. (2023). Hurdles and opportunities in implementing marine biosecurity systems in data-poor regions. BioScience, 73(7), 494–512. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad056
Scriver, M., Zaiko, A., Pochon, X., & von Ammon, U. (2023). Harnessing decay rates for coastal marine biosecurity applications: A review of environmental DNA and RNA fate. Environmental DNA. https://doi.org/10.1002/edn3.405
Zaiko, A., Scheel, M., Schattschneider, J., von Ammon, U., Scriver, M., Pochon, X., & Pearman, J. K. (2023). Pest Alert Tool: A web-based application for flagging species of concern in metabarcoding datasets. Nucleic Acids Research, 51(W1), 438–442. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad364
Riling, C. R., Pankowicz, F., Hanby, H., Scriver, M., Ioele, S., Posternak-Ball, V., Quinn, W. J., Cohen, D. M., Preston, G. M., Crosariol, M., Armour, S. M. & Mingozzi, F. (2021). Investigational Liver Gene Transfer of C1-INH for the Treatment of Hereditary Angioedema. Molecular Therapy, 29(4S1), 177-178. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkad364
Olenin, S., Gollasch, S., Lehtiniemi, M., Sapota, M., & Zaiko, A. (2017). Biological invasions. In P. Snoeijs Leijonmalm, H. Schubert, & T. Radziejewska (Eds.), Biological Oceanography of the Baltic Sea (pp. 193–232). Springer.
Minchin, D., & Zaiko, A. (2013). Variability of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) impacts in the Shannon River system. In T. Nalepa & D. Schlosser (Eds.), Quagga and zebra mussels: Biology, impacts and control (2nd ed., pp. 587–597).
Fenske, C., Zaiko, A., Wozniczka, A., Dahlke, S., & Orlova, M. I. (2013). Variation in length–frequency distributions of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) within and between three Baltic Sea subregions (Szczecin Lagoon, Curonian Lagoon, and Gulf of Finland). In T. Nalepa & D. Schlosser (Eds.), Quagga and zebra mussels: Biology, impacts and control (2nd ed., pp. 725–739).
Lindahl, O., Zaiko, A., & Cahill, B. (2012). Mussel cultivation. In A. Schultz-Zehden & M. Matczak (Eds.), SubMariner Compendium: An assessment of innovative and sustainable uses of Baltic marine resources (pp. 77–102).
Zaiko, A., & Olenin, S. (2009). Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas), zebra mussel (Dreissenidae, Mollusca). In DAISIE: Handbook of alien species in Europe (p. 310). Springer.
Olenin, S., Minchin, D., Daunys, D., & Zaiko, A. (2009). Biological pollution of aquatic ecosystems in Europe. In Atlas of biodiversity risk (Chap. 6, pp. 132–133).
Olenin, S., Minchin, D., Daunys, D., & Zaiko, A. (2009). Pathways of aquatic invasions in Europe. In Atlas of biodiversity risk (Chap. 6, pp. 134–135).