NEWS

2025 Reflections on Lab Members:

It's been quite the year, with funding much more difficult than in past years and a perpetual slew of grant writings and all-nighters. But a constant through the year is a set of lab members who look out for each other, work as a team, and are both curiosity-driven and translationally focused. We have a lot of lab birthdays at the end of the year, so Monday was a chance to celebrate them all. At the end of this year, I'm thankful for the whole lab. Here they are, in order of how long they've been in the lab:

Qitao Zhang - there isn't an iPSC-RPE differentiation protocol tweak he has not tried. There also isn't a person in the world more fastidious with experiments. If, after testing something out, Qitao claims the results are true, it's as if the Pope himself has claimed its truth. Despite his seniority, Qitao is more giving than one can possibly hope. He changes everyone's media when they are out on holidays, is willing to cede or share authorship without a second thought, and is always ready to poke fun of his boss.

Gillian Gulette - our lab manager, who has been willing to take on nearly any scientific experiment or lab management task. We long ago marveled at Gillian's organizational skills, so much so that she gave us a lab meeting on this topic in the past. She is the only person whose to-do list is basically never looked at by me, the king of anal-retentiveness, because it's always up-to-date. Not too many lab managers are equally adept at science and administration, but Gillian is. She looks out for all of us, and the entire lab trusts her completely. The day Gillian leaves us, we all collapse.

Kaitlyn Digsby - our first grad student! I wrote this in Kaitlyn's rec letter, but when we chatted about coming to the lab, I told her she would be the first grad student, and that could be to her disadvantage. She said, "I'm totally fine with that." Kaitlyn has done more to chart her own path than most grad students should be expected to do. Incredibly driven and willing to work her tail off, she also is a strong mentor, being very deliberate in her teaching style with rotation students and undergraduates in the lab. Among her many enviable traits are legendary presentation skills, an ability to juggle multiple tasks at once, and an ability to build community. 

John Han - hard to describe John in all his glory completely. An animal ocular phenotyping expert during his graduate work in Nancy Philp's lab, he is now equally capable of handling RPE culture. But most of what makes John John comes from time off the bench - from the zillion scientific ideas that race through his head faster than he's capable of communicating them to his high-class tastes (when John has his lab, housing at meetings will definitely NOT be at Miller-lab-sanctioned AirBNBs) to his boisterous socializing in an otherwise quiet day at the bench to his willingness to take calls from his boss at all hours when the boss's grant is due and he's helping out. Like Kaitlyn, John is deeply committed to and has been very successful at mentoring.

Kecia Feathers - while Kecia is relatively new to full-time Miller-lab-ing, she's a fixture at Kellogg - she has the title of longest serving scientist (other than a PI) in the department, and so knows how to get EVERYTHING done! Like Qitao, Kecia is insanely fastidious with her experiments - from documentation to controls to execution. Further, she can create sophisticated protocols practically from thin-air (well, it's really a ton of background literature reading, combined with superb scientific intuition). Kecia anchors the biochemical methods of the lab, and is completely selfless in helping others out to execute the parts of their projects that require this type of analysis. All cat paraphenalia in the lab can ultimately be traced to her as well.

Erin Trombly - when Erin joined as an undergraduate, no one in the lab could have imagined the impact she would have. With training under mentorship from Kaitlyn, Erin became so indispensable, we hired her to join the lab while she is applying to medical school. Now, the feedback from all people in the lab is: "Thank goodness, she is saving our (experimental) lives." Erin, like Kaitlyn, is a bench beast, although she does it in her quiet, unassuming way. Underneath her quiet exterior is a wry sense of humor, a deep deep passion for helping vulnerable people, and a can-do spirit. As I wrote in her med school rec letter, whoever ends up with Erin as their doctor is going to thank their lucky stars. 

Nathalie Tsimhoni - Nathalie has paired up as the dynamic partner of John in lab. It sometimes feels like they are inseparable (maybe partly because John drives carless Nathalie around!). If you set out on a long journey around the world, you still would be unlikely to find someone as curious as Nathalie. Always with a question locked and loaded, ready to fire at lab meeting, Nathalie could not possibly stuff more activities or interests into a single person's experiences, be it her right honorable presidency of the major international medicine group on campus, master-level violin playing, or beating the crap out of you on any board game imaginable. The only person to find studying for the MCAT exhilarating because it involved acquiring new knowledge, Nathalie is also a peace-maker. She brings people together and solves conflict with aplomb. 

Abby Gillingham - our second graduate student, Abby was the cat's meow during her rotation, with a unanimous vote by lab members to extend an invite to join the lab this year. Ready with a catchy t-shirt slogan (she and Qitao compete for funniest t-shirts in the lab), armed with myriad adventure pictures she will put up before or after each lab presentation, and frequently seen making cool cross-stitches for friends or hosting movie night, Abby brings vibrancy to our group. She has fearlessly struck out on the peroxisome path, attending the EMBO peroxisome meeting this year herself, where she crash coursed herself (and then us) into peroxisome biology. Abby is supremely open to feedback and diligent at incorporating this into her experimental plans, a trait that bodes well for scientific success!  

Ethan VanHoose - as the second current undergraduate in the lab (working with Qitao), and friends with Nathalie, it bears saying that Ethan has the same infectious enthusiasm as Nathalie. Hard to judge if Ethan likes football, science, or ophthalmology more, because his enthusiasm bubbles over into all categories. A careful thinker, highly analytic, he is diligent - which means he's a great partner to king of diligent, careful experimentation in the Miller lab, Qitao. One fact you will not guess about Ethan is that he is a rabid EDM music listener. We have yet to see him on the dance floor with this music on. Once we do, I feel our understanding of Ethan will be complete. We are so lucky to have dedicated undergraduates that are developing such strong, long-term projects in the lab.

Kaitlyn Digsby received a travel award to attend the Biennial AMD Symposium hosted by Mass Eye and Ear this month. Gillian Gulette oversaw her first comprehensive animal inspection for the lab and carried it out flawlessly - she also made a cool discovery related to branch-chain amino acids in the RPE.  Kecia Feathers has made really significant progress on analyzing RPE lipid secretion via density ultracentrifugation and thin-layer chromatography.  John Han just came back from the RD 2025 meeting in Prague, after receiving a travel award. Qitao Zhang made fun of his boss for the fortieth time without getting fired by said person. The boss, Jason Miller, received an Alan Laties Award to attend the RD 2025 meeting after being induced into Retina Society the week before. Nathalie Tsimhoni took the MCAT and scored extremely well. Erin Trombly has gotten interviews to some exciting medical schools. And Abby Gillingham successfully attended the recent EMBO meeting while on a travel award after passing her quals!