Finding the magic in maths and medicine

Catriona Miller might have been forgiven for wanting to be a wizard when she grew up – she was born in Alnwick, the small UK town whose castle famously served as the main location for Hogwarts School in the first two Harry Potter films.

Or perhaps there was alchemy in her blood.

“My mother remembers me telling people I wanted to be a scientist, when I was five.”

By intermediate school, and now in New Zealand, Catriona’s choices were made, though the specifics were yet to be determined.

“I realised I didn’t really care what subject we were doing, I just loved the process of trying to apply different research and problem-solving methodologies to a range of questions.”

But what to study at university? She had scholarship offers from both Auckland and Otago and struggled to choose, until she landed work experience with a friend of her father’s – Neurological Foundation chief executive Richard Easton. 

Richard let the young student trail him to a few meetings; one of them happened to be with top University of Auckland neuroscientists and professors Sir Richard Faull and Cathy Stinear.

Catriona was spellbound. She immediately accepted the offer to study biomedical science at Waipapa Taumata Rau. 

But something was missing.  

“It was only at the end of the year that I realised what it was – maths. The next year, I transferred to biomedical engineering, which allowed me to get my fill of maths while still being in the medical field.”

Then one evening, scrolling LinkedIn, she came across a post by her high school chemistry teacher’s husband, Professor Justin O’Sullivan, director of the Liggins Institute at the University of Auckland. 

“He was sharing a paper published by one of his PhD students and I realised that, while I didn’t fully understand all the biology in it, it ticked all my boxes.

“I told him neurodevelopment was something I was interested in, and he told me about an autism dataset of 11,000 individuals. He was looking for someone to analyse it, specifically to see if there are genetic reasons why autistic individuals are more likely to get some conditions than neurotypical individuals, and for the difference in diagnostic rates between males and females.

“It was a topic I was interested in, and a massive dataset meant I had found the project for me!”

 Justin became Catriona's PhD supervisor.

"She is an exceptional researcher, who fully engages in everything she does and whose work has advanced our understanding of the genetic architecture underlying neurodevelopment," he says.

"She’s incredibly dedicated, connects with people, and has an ability to succeed with complex problems where others might not."

Having graduated this week, Catriona is now Dr Miller. She is still at the Liggins Institute working with Justin O’Sullivan – this time on his Newborn Genomics project. The work involves analysing the DNA of sick infants with rare diseases to find the genetic causes and, hopefully, in the future, ways to treat them.

“I’ve also been working on a project to use digital twins to simulate different interventions on a computerised version of an individual before it’s used in the real world," Catriona says.

The work is the magic she’s been looking for.

“I use mathematical methods to solve complex health problems. I love taking massive, complicated datasets and finding the hidden patterns within them. And I’m using these skills to help our most vulnerable patients: babies.”