Sara earned a Ph.D. in Dr. Richard Wood’s lab at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Sara studies the function of two DNA translesion polymerases, polymerase theta and polymerase zeta. She did her post-doctoral fellowship in Mitch McVey's lab at Tufts University where she is studying DNA damage tolerance in Drosophila

Hi, I'm Sara, a sophomore majoring Biological Chemistry. Last year I began working in the Tetel Lab growing DU-145 cells and learning from Rosalind Lai '11. This year, I am continuing the project, which studies the role of an androgen metabolite, 3beta-Adiol in activating estrogen receptors signaling pathway to inhibit cell migration of prostate cancer cells. I will be using a pull-down assay to look at the interactions between steroid receptor coactivators in DU-145 prostate cancer cells and estrogen receptors.

I realized I loved working in a research lab when I worked and volunteered in the Wise Laboratory of Environmental and Genetic Toxicology in the summer of 2009. I'm looking forward to continuing improve my research skills in the Tetel lab this year.