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Do you have a
scientific meeting that you'd like a readable, accurate transcript of?
Would you like a meeting report? Would you like to produce
consumer-friendly copy on a complicated medical or scientific topic? I
may be able to help.
 I
have spent my working life with words.
After completing a PhD in plant biology, I spent 15 years working with
the Novartis Foundation (formerly the Ciba Foundation) as Science Editor
and then Senior Editor, working on the renowned Ciba/Novartis Foundation
Symposia.
Held
eight times a year, these small meetings brought together a small group
of the world’s leading scientists to discuss a series of hot topics in
biology and medicine. Often, the focus was cross-disciplinary, with a
view to bringing together people whose interests overlapped, but who
didn’t usually meet.
My
job was to sit in on these meetings, record them in their entirety, and
then produce a book from each. The unusual feature of our symposia was
the large amount of time allotted to discussion. Whereas at most
scientific meetings discussion is limited to a few hurried questions
after each paper (or takes place in the bar at the end of the day), in
our symposia around half the time was allocated to discussion. These, in
an edited form, ended up in the book.
Capturing
the spirit of such discussions while making the spoken word readable is
quite a challenge, requiring the ability to rewrite complicated
scientific material as well as making editorial decisions. The challenge
is to make the discussion accessible to readers while retaining the
spirit and style of the speakers' original comments.
During
my time at the Novartis Foundation I edited over 90 books (see list
below), which has given me a useful grounding in many areas of
contemporary science, ranging from immunology to neurobiology, and
including developmental biology, molecular genetics, psychology,
evolutionary biology and even a bit of philosophy.
The
Novartis Foundation closed its doors in 2008 (its funding, from Novartis,
was withdrawn, and its remaining facilities were transferred to the
Academy of Medical Sciences; sadly, the symposia and their associated
publications are no more).
Since
that time I have been spending most of my time working as a wine writer
(see www.wineanorak.com for more
information on this – I am currently the weekly wine columnist for the
Sunday Express), but I am also doing some freelance scientific
editing work. In the last year I have produced two meeting reports for
The Academy of Medical Sciences (for example, here)
and produced a meeting transcript for a symposium held at Clare College,
Cambridge.
What
I can offer
-
Scientific/technical
transcription services
-
Editing
services, including rewriting
-
Meeting
reports and summaries
-
Copywriting
-
Turning
complicated science into accessible prose
Please
contact me if you’d like a quote for a job, or to discuss any specific
projects you have in mind.
Jamie
Goode +44 (0)208 890 7330
jamie@wineanorak.com
Books
edited for the Ciba/Novartis Foundation (1993-2008):
Cortical
Development: Genes and Genetic Abnormalities
Defining Optimal Immunotherapies for Type 1 Diabetes
Genetic Effects on Environmental Vulnerability to Disease
Growth Factors and Psychiatric Disorders
Novel and Re-emerging Respiratory Viral Diseases
The Biology of Extracellular Molecular Chaperones
Acetaldehyde-Related Pathology: Bridging the Trans-Disciplinary Divide
Decoding the Genomic Control of Immune Reactions
Dietary Supplements and Health
Fatty Acid and Lipotoxicity in Obesity and Diabetes
Mitochondrial Biology: New Perspectives
Sepsis: New Insights, New Therapies, Novartis Foundation Symposium
Tinkering: The Microevolution of Development
Vascular Development
Empathy and Fairness
Epithelial anion transport in health and disease: the role of the SLC26
transporter family
Heart failure: molecules, mechanisms and therapeutic targets
Innate immunity to pulmonary infection
New treatments for dengue and other flaviviral diseases
Purinergic signalling in neuron-glia interactions
Signalling pathways in acute oxygen sensing
Understanding nicotine and tobacco addiction
Epithelial anion transport in health and disease
Genetics of autoimmunity
Mast cells and basophils: development, activation and roles in
allergic/autoimmune disease
Molecular mechanisms influencing aggressive behaviours
Nuclear organization in development and disease
Percept, decision, action bridging the gaps
Signalling networks in cell shape and motility
Stem cells: nuclear reprogramming and therapeutic applications
The hERG cardiac potassium channel: structure, function and long QT
syndrome
Anaphylaxis
Biology of IGF-1: its interaction with insulin in health and malignant
states
Cancer and inflammation
Inflammatory bowel disease: crossroads of microbes, epithelium and
immune systems
Mammalian TRP channels as molecular targets
Osteoarthritic joint pain
Pathological pain: from molecular to clinical aspects
Reversible protein acetylation
Autism: neural basis and treatment possibilities
Development of the cardiac conduction system
Generation and effector functions of regulatory lymphocytes
Immunoinformatics: bioinfomatic strategies for better understanding of
immune function
Molecular clocks and light signalling
Retinal dystrophies: functional genomics to gene therapy
Tissue engineering of cartilage and bone
Drug resistance in epilepsy: lessons from oncology
In silico simulation of biological processes
Ion channels: from atomic resolution physiology to functional genomics
Mucus hypersecretion in respiratory disease
Role of the sarcoplasmic reticulum in smooth muscle
Sodium channels and neuronal hyperexcitability
The genetics and biology of sex determination
Ageing vulnerability: causes and interventions
Complexity in biological information processing
Gastroenteritis viruses
Rice biotechnology: improving yield, stress tolerance and grain quality
Sodium channels and neuronal hyperexcitability
The cell cycle and development
The tumour microenvironment: causes and consequences of hypoxia and
acidity
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease pathogenesis to treatment
Evolutionary developmental biology of the cerebral cortex
From genome to therapy: integrating new technologies with drug
development
Mechanisms and biological significance of pulsatile hormone secretion
Neural transplantation in neurodegenerative disease
Neuronal and cognitive effects of oestrogens
The molecular basis of skeletogenesis
The nature of intelligence
Environmental statistics
Rhodopsins and photo-transduction
Alcohol and cardiovascular diseases
Immunological tolerance
Sensory guidance of movement
The limits of reductionism in biology
Antibiotic resistance: origins, evolution, selection and spread
Characterizing human psychological adaptations
Plasminogen-related growth factors
Precision agriculture: spatial and temporal variability of environmental
quality
The molecular basis of cellular defence mechanisms
Evolution of hydrothermal ecosystems on Earth and Mars?
Genetics of criminal and antisocial behaviour
Growth factors as drugs for neurological and sensory disorders
P2 purinoceptors: localization function and transduction mechanisms
The nature and origin of amyloid fibrils
The molecular biology and pathology of elastic tissue
Non-reproductive actions of sex steroids
Cell adhesion and human disease
Antimicrobial peptides
Higher-order processing in the visual system
The molecular basis of smell and taste transduction
The GTPase superfamily
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