Prof Bill Keevil
BSc PhD CBiol FRSB FRSPH FAAM
Professor of Environmental Healthcare


Profile page(s)
Prof Bill Keevil is a Chartered Biologist with over 240 research papers (>13,700 citations, h-index 62).
He led the Microbiology Group in School of Biological Sciences and has supervised over 30 PhD students. He was previously Consultant Clinical Microbiologist in the Public Health Laboratory Service.
He has an international reputation in microbiology, focussing on biofilm formation, physiology and antimicrobial resistance, colonisation by pathogens and prions, and study of decontamination mechanisms in healthcare, food processing and water treatment, recognised by a Fellowship of the American Academy of Microbiology and others. He was Former Scientific Advisor to House of Commons Science Committee, and is current Chair of Government’s Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food. Co-inventer of the EDIC biofilm microscope.
Landmark publications:
Secker, T.J., Hervé, R.C. and Keevil, C.W. (2022). Sensitive microscopic quantification of surface bound prion infectivity for the assessment of surgical instrument decontamination procedures.
Journal of Hospital Infection, Open Access Published: October 06, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2022.09.020
Kim, M., Lawson, J., Hervé, R., Jakob, H., Ganapathisubramani, B. and Keevil, C.W. (2021). Development of a rapid plasma decontamination system for decontamination and reuse of filtering facepiece respirators. AIP Advances, 11(10):105311. https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0067730
Noel, D., Keevil, C.W. and Wilks, S.A. (2021). Synergism vs Additivity - Defining the Interactions between Common Disinfectants. mBio 12 (5), e02281-21 https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.02281-21
Wilks, S.A., Koerfer, V.V., Prieto, J.A., Fader, M. and Keevil, C.W. (2021). Biofilm development on urinary catheters promotes the appearance of viable but non-culturable (VBNC) bacteria. mBio 12, e03584-20. https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.03584-20
Hervé, R.C., Hedges, J. and Keevil, C.W. (2021). Improved surveillance of surgical instruments reprocessing following the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease crisis in England: findings from a 3-year survey. Journal of Hospital Infection 105, 15-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2021.01.005
Warnes, S.L., Little, Z. and Keevil, C.W. (2015). Human coronavirus 229E remains infectious on common touch surface materials. mBio 6(6):e01697-15. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mBio.01697-15
Michels, H.T, Keevil, C.W., Salgado, C.S. and Schmidt, M.G (2015). From Laboratory Research to a Clinical Trial: Copper Alloy Surfaces Kill Bacteria and Reduce Hospital-Acquired Infections. Health Environments Research & Design Journal 9, 64-79. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1937586715592650
Wilks, S.A, Fader, M.J. and Keevil, C.W. (2015). Novel insights into the Proteus mirabilis crystalline biofilm using real-time imaging. PLOS ONE 10(10):e0141711. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141711
Warnes, S.L., Highmore, C.J. and Keevil, C.W. (2012). Horizontal transfer of antibiotic resistance genes on abiotic touch surfaces: Implications for public health. mBio 2012;3 e00489-12
http://mbio.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/3/6/e00489-12
Keevil, C.W. (2003). Rapid detection of biofilms and adherent pathogens using scanning confocal laser microscopy and episcopic differential interference contrast microscopy. Water Science and Technology 47, 105-116. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12701914/
Major grants:
PI FSA Survival of SARS-CoV-2 on food surfaces and food packaging £172k
Co-I BBSRC/Innovate UK National Biofilms Innovation Centre £25m
Co-I EPSRC Rapid Decontamination System of PPE and Medical Equipment for Reuse using Flexible Non-thermal Plasma Generator £276k
PI NIHR/BRC/JVS Understanding, and modulating, mechanisms of biocide resistance in clinically important bacteria involved in lung infection and nasogastric feeding tube contamination to improve infection prevention protocols £150k
PI NIHR Combined ultrasonically activated water stream and novel disinfectant for vCJD decontamination of re-usable medical instruments. £820k
Co-I EPSRC RAPID point-of-care infection detection £773k
Co-I Phase 2: Development of a simple, one-step cleaning method for intermittent catheters to enable frail, disabled and older people to easily reuse their catheters £514k
PI NIHR EndoDecon: Decontamination of surgical instruments using cold atmospheric plasmas£2.6m
Impact example:
Submitted to REF2021: “Antimicrobial copper alloy touch surfaces reduce hospital bioburden and infection rates”