Sarah J. Moore
Principal Investigator
Associate Professor
Picker Engineering Program
Courtesy Appointment: Biological Sciences
Sarah Moore teaches and conducts research at the intersection of engineering and biology. Her research focuses on biomolecular engineering, primarily engineering proteins for applications in medicine. Current research in the Moore Lab includes engineering proteins for diagnosing and treating cancer, synthesizing protein-polymer conjugates for biomedical applications (collaboration with Maren Buck in Chemistry at Smith College), and developing methods to enable protein targeting ligands to deliver small molecule drugs.
Her Ph.D. research included engineering highly stable proteins for molecular imaging of cancer, for improved detection and surgical resection.
Sarah joined the faculty at Smith College in 2012. She has previously taught Engineering for Everyone; Fundamental Engineering Principles; Introduction to Biomedical Engineering; and Engineering and Cancer. Students who have conducted research in the Moore Lab come from a variety of majors, including engineering, biological sciences, biochemistry, chemistry and neuroscience.
Whenever possible, Sarah enjoys spending time outside with her family, including hiking, cycling, backpacking, snowshoeing, and rock climbing. You might see her around campus with her wonderful kindergarten son, Michael.
Education
Ph.D., M.S., Bioengineering, Stanford University
B.S.E., Chemical Engineering, Princeton University
Selected Honors and Awards
2023 - NIH R15 AREA grant for her research project: "Expanding the design space of protein-small molecule conjugates," August 2023 - July 2026.
2015 - NIH R15 AREA grant for her research project: "Engineering therapeutic and diagnostic proteins for tumor biomarker mesothelin," July 2015–June 2019
2015 - Faculty Teaching Award, awarded annually by the students of Smith College through the Student Government Association for excellence in teaching and mentoring
2011 - Gerald Lieberman Fellowship, Stanford University
2010 - Siebel Scholars Fellowship
2010 - Best Poster Award, Annual Symposium of the Protein Society
2009 - Centennial Teaching Assistant Award, Stanford University
2008 - Stanford Graduate Fellowship, Medtronic Fellow
2006 - NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
Selected Publications
*Indicates undergraduate co-author.
A.R. Sirois, D.A. Deny*, Y Li*, Y.D. Fall*, S.J. Moore. Engineered Fn3 protein has targeted therapeutic effect on mesothelin-expressing cancer cells and increases tumor cell sensitivity to chemotherapy. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.27204
J.S. Kim*, A.R. Sirois, A.J. Vazquez Cegla*, E. Jumai’an*, N. Murata*, M.E. Buck, S.J. Moore. Protein-polymer conjugates synthesized using water-soluble azlactone-functionalized polymers enable receptor-specific cellular uptake towards targeted drug delivery. Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2019. 30(4): 1220-1231. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.9b00155
A.R. Sirois, D.A. Deny*, S.R. Baierl*, K.S. George*, S.J. Moore. “Fn3 proteins engineered to recognize tumor biomarker mesothelin internalize upon binding.” PLoS One, 2018. 13(5): e0197029. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197029.
S.J. Moore, M.G. Hayden Gephart, J.M. Bergen, Y.S. Su, H. Rayburn, M.P. Scott, J.R. Cochran. “Engineered knottin peptide enables non-invasive optical imaging of intracranial medulloblastoma.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2013. 110(36): 14598-14603.
S.J. Moore, C.L. Leung, H.K. Norton*, and J.R. Cochran. “Engineering Agatoxin, a cystine-knot peptide from spider venom, as a molecular probe for in vivo tumor imaging.” PLOS ONE, 2013. 8: e60498.
H. Jiang, S.J. Moore, S. Liu, H. Liu, Z. Miao, F.V. Cochran, Y. Liu, M. Tian, J.R. Cochran, H. Zhang, and Z. Cheng. “A novel radiofluorinated agouti-related protein for tumor angiogenesis imaging.” Amino Acids, 2013. DOI: 10.1007/s00726-012-1391-y.
S.J. Moore and J.R. Cochran. “Engineering Knottins as Novel Binding Agents.” Methods in Enzymology, 2012. 503: 223-251.
S.J. Moore, C.L. Leung, and J.R. Cochran. “Knottins: Disulfide-bonded Therapeutic and Diagnostic Peptides.” Drug Discovery Today: Technologies, 2012. 9: e3-e11.