Catherine Millar-Haskell

Biomedical Engineering, PhD

* * Extracellular vesicles * *

Assay Dev Scientist @ Goofball 🤍💜

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

@tomdriedonks Thank you. Same to you!

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

I can't believe it's already been a year. :)

[ISEV-Journals @ISEV_Journals]

Interested in the #TME? Well, these data published in #JExBio in July 2022 demonstrate that the enzyme QSOX1 may have more influence on the tumour microenvironment than generally appreciated. 👉 https://t.co/2bzZA0ecyC #OneYearinJExBio @CatInScience, @lab_slater, @GleghornLab

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

@ClarkNano Jalapeño poppers or stuffed peppers are usually a hit! Just need shredded beef, cheese, and peppers :)

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

~*Skunk Cabbage*~

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

Today while walking through a frosty, swampy area in the woods, I came across this strange looking plant. It smelled like garlic and it was impossible to uproot.
Turns out it's skunk garlic, a thermogenic plant that can generate heat and melt surrounding ice. Pretty dang cool!

[Brielle Hayward-Piatkovskyi, PhD 🇺🇦 @piatkovskyi]

So glad to see my first 1st author paper is published. I'm very excited to share these findings with the world

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

I didn't know powdered sugar came 10x concentrated from the grocery store. Does this mean I have to dilute by a tenth to get a 1x working concentration for my dessert? 🧑‍🍳

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

…And a gentle reminder that negative (null) results are just as meaningful as "positive" ones!

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

My second paper from my PhD with @GleghornLab is out as a preprint! A big thanks to my advisor + my lab for supporting me as I tried to figure out what really regulates QSOX1 in pancreatic tumor cells. 🧦My favorite little disulfide bond generating catalyst. 🧦

[bioRxiv @biorxivpreprint]

Matrix mechanics, not hypoxia, modulate quiescin sulfhydryl oxidase 1 (QSOX1) in pancreatic tumor cells https://t.co/sYEmh9IGAM #bioRxiv

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

@MicrobiomDigest Now, perhaps if they didn't label any of their samples and used different versions of their data (instead of one report), they could end up grabbing the wrong plot by mistake. As someone who has run hundreds, if not thousands of samples, I can't really imagine doing that.

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

@MicrobiomDigest From my experience (w/NovoExpress) you can easily duplicate plots and export them. This looks like the same run with the gating shifted slightly to the left. How easy it is to make this mistake by accident: not easy at all. You'd have to have pretty bad with data management...

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

@Joadwe @aquicarattino You're correct, it's NTA. I think NTA is "precise" (at least in its engineering), but it is absolutely not accurate. Event then - if a filter truly removed most EVs > 0.22 um, then I doubt we'd see a peak specifically around 370 nm. But I'm only speculating.

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

I have a random question for the #extracellularvesicles community that I've been mulling over for a while: why do people use 0.22 um filters instead of, let's say, 0.45 um filters to clarify conditioned media prior to EV isolation/purification?

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

@aquicarattino I wouldn't say they are working poorly, necessarily. Lipid-based particles behave differently than other types of nanoparticles. They can deform and squeeze through the pores more easily. They are also more fragile. But bottle top filters do a good job of removing cell debris.

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

@aquicarattino No, this is not real data. In hindsight, I probably should have put a watermark across the plot to make it more obvious. I made the plot based on data that I've seen in numerous papers as well as my own observations. Here is a real plot showing >30% of the particles are >200 nm

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

@fadi_abz That's a good point - the material (PES, PP, PTFE) will certainly change how EVs pass through and using a syringe filter can create a lot of back pressure. I think both EV yield and quality may be adversely affected. Curious if anyone has set up experiments to test this already.

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

I think performing a filtration step is necessary for non-adherent cell culture, but is it needed for adherent cells? Has the community looked into alternate clarification steps? @IsevComms

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

Is there a concern that the size cut-off overlaps with many EV subpopulations? For some studies, would this selection bias alter or skew results?

[Catherine Millar-Haskell @CatInScience]

I'm in my third month of being jobless after graduating with my PhD. I'm financially broke although my extended family is taking care of me. Is this normal? Everyone is saying the job market is hot right now but I can't find any interested employer. I'm at a loss for what to do.