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Dr Sophie Rachel Miller

Sophie was a greatly loved daughter, sister and friend. She was an incredible scientist and brilliant thinker, who held great promise to make a difference within science and expand understanding of cell development. You can see more about her scientific research here.

Soph was born on 6th June 1990 in Grimsby, UK. She moved with her family to Voorschoten, The Netherlands and spent much of her childhood and adolescence there until leaving to study at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Sophie excelled in her field of Natural Sciences and continued at Cambridge to complete a Masters degree and PhD in the subject. On completing her studies she went on to do postdoctoral research in Copenhagen.

Sophie was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) in June 2016. MDS is a rare blood disorder in which a person’s bone marrow fails to produce the correct amount of healthy blood cells. Instead, it makes abnormal cells that are not fully functional. The only cure for this condition is a bone marrow transplant. There is a bone marrow register which the public are actively encouraged to sign up to. Through this register, a suitable bone marrow donor was found and Sophie was admitted to hospital in September for the transplant. Although potentially curative, bone marrow transplantation is not without risk, and unfortunately Sophie developed Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD). This is a complication of bone marrow transplantation in which the transplanted cells attack and destroy the body’s own cells. This leads to damage of all organs of the body. After four months of treatment in hospital, she passed away on the 22nd of December 2016.