Science - A brief history of Dr. Chris (et al.)

Analysis of the ROA spectra of proteins, 2002

My first experience with scientific research was as a Ph.D student with Prof. Laurence Barron FRS at the University of Glasgow between 1999 and 2002. My Ph.D work involved collecting the ROA (Raman optical activity) spectra of proteins and developing a computer program to analyse the spectra in an attempt to determine the 3D structural type of the proteins. As well as my Ph.D thesis, I co-wrote a number of papers that were published in scientific journals. The image on the right shows the 'result' of my work, with each point on the graph representing a different protein - and in turn, about one week of my life as a Ph.D student!

Copper binding site of the amyloid beta peptide, 2004

After my Ph.D, I went to work at Queen Mary, University of London with Dr. John Viles from 2002 to 2005. During this time, I was mainly studying a protein involved in Alzheimer's Disease, the amyloid beta peptide. In 2004, we published a paper on the structure of the copper binding site of the peptide in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

EPR studies of the strength of copper binding to Abeta, 2009

As a result of this work, I stayed on with another group at Queen Mary and I studied a protein involved in the porphyrin biosynthesis, HemN , while continuing to work with the Viles group. Some work I had started in 2005 but didn't get published at the time was finished off by another Viles group member, Claire Sarell. As a result of her Ph.D project, the work was eventually published in the journal Biochemistry in 2009, some four years after it had started!

Raman spectroscopy of intracellular nanoparticles, 2010

After a brief stint lecturing the 1st year undergraduate course "Heredity and Gene Action" at Queen Mary in 2008, I left London and came back to Glasgow to work in the Bioelectronics Research Centre, based in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering. The project involves using Raman spectroscopy to study individual cells using microfluidic devices. In 2010, my colleague Siri and I published our first paper from this project in the journal Analytical Chemistry (see also this post!).