Caitlin Reid

Caitlin joined the Earnshaw lab in May 2019 as a summer intern working with Dr Mar Carmena. Previously, she completed her BSc in Applied Biomedical Science at Glasgow Caledonian University. During her undergraduate studies, Caitlin worked at NHS Scotland in histopathology and microbiology – fulfilling her traineeship with the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS). In her final year she achieved a first-class Honours project working with Dr Patricia Martin, studying disease-associated point mutations in Gap junction beta-2 protein (Connexin 26), using mouse models and tissue culture. During her internship in our lab, Caitlin studied the distribution of chromosome periphery proteins whilst learning the fundamentals of fluorescent microscopy, cell handling and sample preparation – and dipping her toes into the vast literature associated with mitotic chromosomes. Following on from this introduction into the lab, she spent the next 1.5 years as a full-time research technician – working closely with Dr Kumiko Samejima and Dr Elisa Pesenti. Guided by Kumiko, Caitlin has established several cell lines utilising the auxin-inducible degron system (Kanemaki et al. 2009 and 2020) whilst supporting the general running of the lab and continuing to improve her microscopy, tissue culture and flow cytometry skills. Caitlin contributed to Elisa’s 2020 paper published in ACS Synthetic Biology titled ‘Analysis of Complex DNA Rearrangements during Early Stages of HAC Formation’ – in particular with microscopy analysis and imaging, fiber-FISH experiments and cloning. She also optimised a protocol for cyto-spinning chromosome spreads of HeLa CDK1as cells, which she used to produce figure 6 of ‘The intrinsically disorderly story of Ki-67’, published in Open Biology (Remnant et al. 2021). In March 2021, Caitlin started her Ph.D. with Bill. Her project focuses on utilising the CDK1as system established by Kumiko – studying chromatin during the first minutes as cells enter almost-perfect synchronous mitotic entry. She will utilise her experience with genome editing and microscopy whilst she trains to become proficient in proteomics experiments, data analysis and interpretation. She aims to complete her PhD by September 2025.