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![[Photograph of Belinda Rossiter]](images/belinda1.jpg)
Biomedical editor, with a background in human genetics.
 belinda@rossiters.org
Introduction
The purpose of this page is to introduce myself professionally. You will find here a summary of what I do and what I used to do, together with links to web sites on which I have worked and other sites that I have found useful. At the end of this page there is a list of some of my printed publications.
My non-professional interests include family, church activities (Crosspoint Church), membership in the Houston Choral Showcase, music (participating and listening), reading, and puzzles. I have also enjoyed church bell ringing, bowling, and scuba diving in the past, but don't have time for them at the moment. Maybe later.
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I work as a free-lance biomedical editor, and have also authored web pages and prepared technical illustrations. Underlying each of these activities is a compulsion for detail and accuracy, and a continuing desire to improve. The editing I do is primarily in biomedical subjects. However, I am not limited to biology when it comes to the production of web pages, because the skills I have acquired in presenting complex technical subjects with clarity and accuracy have also served me well in other areas. Some of the pages on which I have worked are listed below. I have prepared virtually all of the illustrations that appear in my published papers, and also many teaching slides. Again, the emphasis here is on presenting information clearly.
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Before becoming free-lance, I worked for 12 years in academic medical genetics (at the Christie Hospital in Manchester, England, and at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas). I spent seven of those years as a research scientist and another five as a writer, editor, educator, illustrator, and web page author in an academic department. I have used a variety of media to provide information about human genetics to a wide range of professional and lay audiences. This communication has taken the form of printed publications, newsletters, web documents, oral presentations, and the design of visual aids.
To step further back in history, I was born in England and obtained my first degree (Biochemistry) from the University of Cambridge there. My Ph.D. (Molecular Biology) is from the University of Manchester. Having lived for 20 years in the United States I now claim to be bilingual, speaking both British and American English!
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Here is a selection of web sites that I have developed:
My philosophy on web page design
The content of a web page must be clear, regardless of the layout, because authors cannot predict which platform, browser or configuration the reader will be using. With this in mind, I have designed pages that present their information clearly in all browsers, including those without any graphics capability. I am also extremely careful to check that the HTML code is clean (by using validators) because simply checking by eye is not good enough. Graphics can often enhance a web page, but they must be economical to download, they must not be distracting, and where appropriate they should be accompanied by ALT text for those who can't (or choose not to) view the images.
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Web authoring
Human genetics
Fun
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Review articles
Rossiter BJF and Caskey CT (1995) Presymptomatic testing for genetic diseases of later life. Pharmacoepidemiological considerations. Drugs & Aging 7:117-130.
Rossiter BJF and Caskey CT (1995) Impact of the Human Genome Project on medical practice. Annals of Surgical Oncology 2:14-25.
Alford RL, Rossiter BJF and Caskey CT (1994) DNA diagnosis in monogenic diseases. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care 10:628-643.
Rossiter BJF, Stirpe N and Caskey CT (1992) Report of the MDA Gene Therapy Conference, Tucson, Arizona, September 27-28, 1991. Neurology 42:1413-1418.
Rossiter BJF and Caskey CT (1990) Molecular scanning methods of mutation detection. Journal of Biological Chemistry 265:12753-12756.
Book chapters
Rossiter BJF and Caskey CT (1995) Human genetic predisposition to disease. In Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, ed. RA Meyers, pp.428-431. New York, NY: VCH Publishers, Inc.
Rossiter BJF and Caskey CT (1995) Hypoxanthine guanine phosphoribosyltransferase deficiency: Lesch-Nyhan syndrome and gout. In The Metabolic and Molecular Bases of Inherited Disease, seventh edition, eds. CR Scriver, AL Beaudet, WS Sly and D Valle, pp.1679-1706. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Caskey CT and Rossiter BJF (1994) Human Genetics. In McGraw-Hill Yearbook of Science and Technology 1995, pp.203-206. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Educational material
Member of writing team (August 1995) for The Puzzle of Inheritance: Genetics and the Methods of Science (1997). Project to develop educational materials for use in High School tenth grade biology classes, published by Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS).
Member of writing team (July 1991) for Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy (1992). Project to develop educational materials for use in High School tenth grade biology classes, published by Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) and the American Medical Association (AMA).
Research papers
Rossiter BJF, Fuscoe JC, Muzny DM, Fox M and Caskey CT (1991) The Chinese hamster HPRT gene: Restriction map, sequence analysis and multiplex PCR deletion screen. Genomics 9:247-256.
Rossiter BJF, Muzny DM, Hampson I, Caskey CT and Fox M (1990) Induced reversion of a spontaneous point mutation within the Chinese hamster HPRT gene to the wild-type sequence. Mutagenesis 5:605-608.
Other items
Editor of Pin Oak Middle School PTO e-Newsletter, from September 2005 to present.
Editor of The Horn Trumpeter, newsletter of Paul W. Horn Academy, 20 issues from September 2000 to May 2002.
Edited most of the manuscripts in Radiation Injury and the Chernobyl Catastrophe (1997), eds. N Daniak, WJ Schull, L Karkanitsa and OA Aleinikova. Miamisburg, Ohio: AlphaMed Press.
HUGO statement on patenting of DNA sequences (1995) Authored by Caskey CT, Eisenberg RS, Lander E and Straus J. Edited by Rossiter BJF.
Creator and editor of Baylor Genome Center News, 16 issues from November 1991 to December 1995.
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