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!).

Science - Supermassive black hole?

Stars near the galactic centre are believed to be orbiting a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*)   (from Gillessen et al., The Astrophysical Journal, 692:1075–1109, 2009)

Based on observations made between 1992 and 2008, a group led by Reinhart Genzel in Germany have found the best evidence yet that there is a supermassive black hole lurking at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. By watching the movement of 28 individual stars, it is possible to see that they share a common point around which they all orbit. But perhaps most interestingly, one such star (so called 'S2') was observed to complete a full orbit around the central point - the first time such an event has ever been recorded. From the speed and shape of the orbit of this star (and the others), it was determined that the central point must be relatively small, but with a mass equivalent to around 4 million times that of the Sun.

Chris's Interests - Astronomy

Astronomy is a hobby of mine and the planet Saturn was the first planet I saw through my telescope. Ever since my Grandad gave me his monocular when I was a kid, I've been looking at the stars in the night sky, even if the Scottish weather sometimes makes it difficult. Soon after that, I got a book on Astronomy so I could begin to learn the names and locations of some stars, and eventually I was able to find my way around the night sky without having to look at the book! Nowadays, there are plenty of free pieces of software available on the internet or even on your mobile phone that shows you what the night sky looks like at any particular time. Ever since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, our view of the cosmos has changed forever. Sadly, it is not possible to get such a good view of the universe from a simple telescope based in your own back garden. Fortunately, with websites like NASA's Astronomy Picture Of The Day and Hubblesite.org, it is easy to find amazing pictures and keep up to date with all the new discoveries being made about our universe. But there is nothing like being able to look at the cosmos for yourself!

Chris's Interests - Climate Change

Climate change is a topic I am very interested in. Over the past few years, public interest in this topic has grown massively. But while there is alot of information available on the internet and in the scientific literature, much remains unknown about the way our planet's climate system works. As a result, many people remain skeptical that there is anything unusual going on, or that even if there is, that human activity is not playing a significant role in altering the Earth's climate. My opinion is that the evidence does point fairly conclusively to human activity playing a significant role in affecting the Earth's climate, but that we currently don't know enough about what the future effects might be. The graph shown above is an up to date measurement of global surface temperature, taken from NASA's climate change website. As well as this, other 'key indicators' are presented that show that climate change is indeed happening, although some uncertainty remains as to what the causes are, and what the effects might be.

Uncle Chris publishes a paper in Analytical Chemistry!

After working in London for six years, I came back to Scotland to work at the University of Glasgow in 2008. A few months after I started, my friend Siri joined the same group and we started working on a project together. It involved looking at nanoparticles inside cells using laser light, in a technique known as Raman spectroscopy. We wrote a couple of papers, and submitted them to scientific journals. Today, 9th August 2010, our first paper appeared in print on the website of the American journal, Analytical Chemistry.