Parasitic worms (commonly called helminths) infect >1.5 billion people and countless animals worldwide. We need to understand how these worms survive and adapt in humans and animals to improve the treatment of worms as a human and animal health problem. I use spatial and single nuclei transcriptomics to describe helminth anatomy at a cellular resolution. I focus on understanding the function of genes specific to host infection, immune evasion, drug resistance, and sexual development.
Before joining the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Sarah completed a PhD in Biology in 2018 at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA with Sam Loker. Her PhD focused on transcriptomics of field-derived Schistosoma mansoni and its intermediate host snail, Biomphalaria spp. She continued her work on Schistosoma mansoni as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Matthew Berriman’s group, publishing the chromosome-scale genome and transcriptome of S. mansoni and a comprehensive stage- and sex-specific transcriptome data set.
In the Doyle lab, Sarah is developing single nuclei and spatial transcriptomics tools for helminths to study the developmental biology of the veterinary parasite Haemonchus contortus.