Donald Huston

Donald Huston is a Research Scientist for Chemical and Biological Defense Programs at the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, the University Affiliated Research Center designated by the U.S. Department of War and sponsored by U.S. Strategic Command.

Huston has provided technical expertise for NSRI since 2019, supporting projects spanning various disciplines in biology, including molecular biology, microbiology, aerosol biology and phage biology. As a task lead, he has conducted field tests and designed experiments to develop novel methodologies in the laboratory. Among his many efforts, he served as technical lead for an infectious aerosol risk study on the United States Naval Ship Mercy.

Prior to his appointment at NSRI, Huston worked in the biotechnology industry, performing custom high-throughput services in genomics with QIAGEN. He worked with traditionally difficult-to-process samples, such as RNA from low-yield biofluids and state-of-the-art next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms. As part of the Lean Six Sigma program, Huston worked to optimize NGS workflows to more efficiently use time and resources.

From 2013 to 2017, Huston served as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He worked on developing assays to identify inhibitors of the SOS response in bacteria and methods for purifying M. tuberculosis proteins.

Huston graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.