For Sarah, being a PhD candidate within the Centre for Fragment-Based Design was a great opportunity to gain access to experts, expand her network and attend conferences.

On deciding to pursue a PhD she says “I really enjoyed my master’s degree. What I like even more is the opportunity to do something that could help other people and possibly contribute to fighting disease”.

Research Overview
Sarah uses X-ray crystallography for structural characterisation of soluble and membrane proteins and for validation of future fragment screening experiments with native state mass spectrometry. She is currently working on two projects; human membrane protein ASCT2 which is overexpressed in various cancers and potential targets for antimalarial drugs.

Education
Sarah attained her BSc and MSc in Chemistry at the University of Freiburg (Germany), followed by 1 year as a research associate (also at the University of Freiburg) and started her Phd in 2019 at Griffith University.

“I would like to become an expert in crystallography and maybe do a postdoc. I’m not sure if in academia or industry, but either way it would be very nice if I could continue my career in Australia.” she says.