on the web since 1995. Please
contact me wi th any comments.
Tartans and Genealogy
The tartan panels
shown are the design worn by the clan Henderson
(my mother's family name) and constitute a link
to the House of Tartan collection. Genealogists
who wish to trace their Scottish ancestry could
profitably co nsult the internet information provided
by the
GENUKI:Scotland page or by the
General Register Office for Scotland who colla te statistics
on Births,
Deaths and Marriages in Scotland and keep indexes and records of each individual event,
stretching back several centuries. You can make a web search of their indexes using the Scots Origins site. The lion rampant flag is that of the King of the Scots, who has allowed it to be used by his people for many hundreds of years. You often see it at sports events involving our national teams.
Edinburgh Days
I was born and brought
up in the Marchmont area of
Edinburgh in Scotland. Click on Scotland's national flag (the Saltire) to visit the Scottish Tourist Board site.
Edinburgh in particular is a
fascinating city for a
visit (would I be biased?).
For a general flavour of Scotland (and the world) as seen from Edinburgh why not
take the Edinburgh
Whisky Tour
(which was compiled by John Butler) or consult
The Scotsman
newspaper.
Californian Days
From Jan 1997 to Feb 2000 I worked as a research scientist in La Jolla, California. Initially I was a Fulbright Cancer Research Fellow and after that first year I continued as a research associate of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute working in Larry
Goldstein's. The lab is part of the Division of Cellular and
Molecular Medicine at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD).
For more of my history consult my
potted biography.
The
waving bear flag is a link to the official California State Website.
Back to the UK
From February 2000 until July 2001 I ran the Life Sciences practice in the Centre for Exploitation of Science and Technology. CEST was a research charity which existed to promote the responsible and efficient uptake of enterprise, science and technology. They did this by running consortia where stakeholders could communicate and learn on a shared risk/ shared cost basis. In effect we facilitated science strategy. When CEST closed in July 2001, I reverted to running my biopolicy consultancy, McFarlane Valentine BioConsulting (MVBio). Since August 2001 Alastair has also led the Improving Mental Health Information Programme (iMHIP) for NHSScotland.
British News
From the US it is still easy to get a British view of the world.
Th e
waving US/UK flag is a link to the British Information
Services site (a unit of the British (UK) Embassy in Washington DC)
who offer
a
daily British media review and snippets of
British commercial radio. For more of the British view of the world the BBC news page is worth a look. This provides access to BBC services including the BBC World Service.
Research Interests
Cancer can arise when cell divisions
occur abnormally. In normal cells,
chromosomes, which bear the genetic material,
are copied between cell divisions. One copy of each chromosome
is given to each of the two cells
formed when a cell divides. Many proteins play a part in the
correct partition of chromosomes. Since insect cell divisions
are extremely similar to those in humans we can use mutants of
Drosophila (a small fruit fly)
to discover how failure of chromosome separation processes might lead
to cell division abnormalities in human cells. Hopefully an
enhanced understanding of how
mitosis occurs will aid deve lopment of more targetted
therapeutics
to treat human cancers. More details on my work are available on a separate page or by clicking on the two pictures of mitosis in Drosophila embryos from that work. The top picture shows what mitosis should look like and the bottom what can happen in a mutant. The two pix are at different magnifications.
My early (PhD) research was conducted within the
CRC Cell Cycle Genetics Group at the University of Dundee. In Dundee I began studying mutations affecting aspects of
mito tic sister chromatid separation
in Drosophila.
The links page to useful
biological research resources including
flybase
and
pubmed was originally designed for the Glover lab in Dundee but accompanied me to my new lab and
continues to evolve.
In California
I continued to study the problem of chromosome
segregation in Drosoph ila mitosis, but also examined
how molecular motors move chromosomes about in the
cell as it divides.
Science, the Public and Policy issues
A tiny section
discussing why
we must improve understanding
of what science can offer society (and what it cannot).
I had hoped to add links to help scientists to do this and
some documents
which explained important issues to the educated layman. Due to pressure of time however this project has been mothballed. However see the MVBio web site for some briefing notes on areas of biopolicy.
Visionary investment?
Eurostar is the
rail service which links London with Paris
and Brussels through the Channel Tunnel. As a founder
shareholder in Eurotunnel,
who operate the Tunn el, it has been very gratifying to see
the service become so successful.
When the fast link to the t unnel through
southern England is finally built it will be possible to
travel the British section of the journey at the 300km/hr speed
achieved in France. Paris to London
(centre to centre) will then be possible in less than three hours
by rail. Already the busiest air route from London has
switched from being London to Paris to being London to Edinburgh.
The Archers
The Archers is a radio serial, described as an everyday story of country folk, on BBC Radio 4 which has run
since the 1950s. There are six new 15 minute episodes a week.
Consult Chris Harrison's
Archers site for plot summaries
Netmind offer a
free service (they don't pay me either) where they
will e-mail you when I update this page. To register just
type in your e-mail below.
Created by
Alastair Valentine Philp and last revised on 27 Dec 2003
Please
contact me with any comments. Bear in mind that much of this site is archival and no longer actively maintained.