Q & A

Abstract

What turned you on to biology in the first place? Long summer holidays on the West Coast of Scotland. I loved investigating the wildlife on the shore and spent ages watching the creatures I scooped out of ponds and streams. Why cell biology? I originally wanted to be a marine biologist, but then I realised I'd have to spend hours and hours soaking wet and freezing cold; by then the Cambridge cell biology lectures had me hooked. Do you have a ‘favourite’ paper? No, but I have two favourite lectures. The pure theatre surrounding each still gives me a thrill to recall. The first was at a conference when Elaine Fuchs revealed that keratin mutations were the underlying cause of certain skin fragility disorders. The session chairman was very hostile and laid into her the moment the talk ended, but the audience were just blown away by the data and gave her a standing ovation (something I've never seen before or since). The second was here at the CR-UK LRI when it turned out that Peter Goodfellow had identified SRY, the sex determination gene. A year or two before it seemed that Peter had been beaten to the discovery. Although this must have been an incredible blow, he continued his research and so realised that the first report was incorrect. Peter's postdoc presented the data and I remember Peter sitting with his head in his hands throughout the seminar. The sense of drama and emotion in the room were palpable. Do you have a ‘scientific hero’ – if so, who and why? Dr Frank-N-Furter (‘Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab’). He wins hands down for fearlessness, enthusiasm and presentation style. Not that I'm an advocate of human cloning, of course. What is the best advice you have been given? From Bruce Spiegelman at Harvard: “Never turn down a job that you haven't actually been offered” and “You always have space for a really great postdoc”. Any advice for someone wondering whether to start a career in biology? If you love the science, do it. Young women are often plagued with feelings of inadequacy. But if it's what you really want to do, give it a go; you can always bale out later on. What has been your biggest mistake? Setting myself up as a role model. A PhD student once came to talk to me because she didn't see how she could combine a life in the lab with any kind of personal life. “Of course you can, I do” was my reply. To which she responded, without hesitation or malice “But I don't want a life like yours”! Any strong views on journals and the peer review system? Yes. I hate the fact that publishing companies make enormous profits from the need of scientists to publish their work. I hate the fact that most journal editors are not active in research and so are unaccountable to the scientific community. Napster and other web sites for free downloading of music have shaken up the music industry; I would love the same thing to happen in science publishing. What is your greatest ambition in research? I care deeply about research as a community activity and would love to create a really special environment in which scientists at all stages of their careers can flourish. What is the next big thing in biology? There have been enormous advances in developmental biology over the last 20 years. Now the challenge is to understand how tissues are maintained in adult life – what controls self-renewal, differentiation and repair? The answers to these questions will give us new approaches to cancer prevention and treatment. How have coped since the birth of your twins? I don't worry about the children when I'm in the lab and I don't worry about the lab while I'm at home. Fiona Watt is at the London Research Institute of Cancer Research UK. She grew up in Edinburgh and obtained her first degree from Cambridge University. She obtained her DPhil in Oxford, working with Henry Harris on cell fusion. She was a postdoc at MIT in Howard Green's laboratory and it was there that she first became interested in epithelial differentiation. She returned to Britain to set up a lab at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology in London. She has been at the CR-UK LRI (formerly known as ICRF) since 1987. She has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cell Science since 1992, and is currently President of the British Society for Cell Biology. She is married with three children.