Pleasantine Mill

Career and research Mill was awarded a Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) postdoctoral research fellowship to join the Medical Research Council (MRC) Human Genetics Unit (HGU). She worked on mouse mutagenesis.

Mill examined the influence of the Retinitis pigmentosa GTPase regulator (RPGR) gene on the cells in the eye and how they can cause X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, a condition which causes blindness in middle age. Photoreceptors decay in retinitis pigmentosa patients due to a flaw in the RPGR gene. She proposed that drugs which make dynein motor proteins functional could improve the quality of life of patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia. In October 2018 Mill chaired the first PCD awareness day. She proposed that the Government of the United Kingdom introduced early genetic diagnosis of PCD for babies with no identified causes of neonatal respiratory distress. She hopes that genome editing will be able to treat PCD. The technique allows the study of the interactions between cilia and cells in development, regeneration and disease. It investigates how cilia length and dynamics impact the speed of cell division and tissue development.

Awards and honours In 2018 Mill was awarded the British Society for Cell Biology Women in Cell Biology Early Career Medal. .