Sara Sawyer
Sara L. Sawyer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sawyer receiving the 2011 PECASE award | |
| Alma mater | University of Kansas (BS) Cornell University (PhD) |
| Awards | Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2011) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center BioFrontiers Institute University of Colorado Boulder |
| Thesis | The final steps in the initiation of DNA replication: Activation of the pre-replication complex. (2003) |
Sara Lea Sawyer is an American cell biologist who is a Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. She investigates animal viruses that infect humans, including the emergent virus SARS-CoV-2. She was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers by Barack Obama in 2011.
Early life and education
Sawyer was born in Olathe, Kansas. She was an undergraduate student at the University of Kansas, where she majored in chemical engineering. As an undergraduate she worked on fuel cell technology. After graduating, Sawyer worked in the oil industry as a drilling engineer in the Gulf of Mexico.[1] She moved to Cornell University for her graduate studies, where she studied the final steps in the initiation of DNA replication.[2] Sawyer was a postdoctoral student with Harmit Malik in the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center[3][4] where she investigated the protein APOBEC3G, which defends cells from HIV/AIDS by causing mutation in the virus' genetic code.[5] In response to these mutations, the HIV virus produces Vif, a protein which binds to APOBEC3G and identifies it for destruction.[5] She found that APOBEC3G evolved long before there was evidence of HIV-like viruses in primates.
Research and career
In 2011, Sawyer was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.[6][7]
Sawyer co-founded the bioscience company Darwin Biosciences in 2020.[8][9] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sawyer investigated how SARS-CoV-2 spreads between infected people. As part of this effort, she developed a fast, cheap and easy COVID-19 screening test. The test was based on a Reverse Transcription Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP).[10] She analyzed over 72,000 COVID test samples collected from students and staff at the University of Colorado Boulder between August and November 2021. She found that only 2% of COVID patients were responsible for 90% of the circulating virus. As for students living in university of accommodation, she found that only one fifth of those testing positive in halls of residence actually infected their roommates. These infectious students carried a viral load almost seven times higher than non-spreaders. She also showed that students in single rooms were half as likely to become infected.[11]
Awards and honors
- 2006 Burroughs Wellcome Early Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences[12]
- 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers[6][7]
- 2013 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator[13]
- 2014 Omenn Prize for the Best Evolution Paper[14]
Selected publications
- Sara L. Sawyer; Lily I. Wu; Michael Emerman; Harmit S. Malik (22 February 2005). "Positive selection of primate TRIM5alpha identifies a critical species-specific retroviral restriction domain". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 102 (8): 2832–7. Bibcode:2005PNAS..102.2832S. doi:10.1073/PNAS.0409853102. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 549489. PMID 15689398. Wikidata Q29618741.
- Sara L Sawyer; Michael Emerman; Harmit S Malik (September 2004). "Ancient adaptive evolution of the primate antiviral DNA-editing enzyme APOBEC3G". PLOS Biology. 2 (9): E275. doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PBIO.0020275. ISSN 1544-9173. PMC 479043. PMID 15269786. Wikidata Q21146408.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - Dianne I Lou; Jeffrey A. Hussmann; Ross M McBee; Ashley Acevedo; Raul Andino; William H Press; Sara L. Sawyer (15 November 2013). "High-throughput DNA sequencing errors are reduced by orders of magnitude using circle sequencing". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 110 (49): 19872–19877. Bibcode:2013PNAS..11019872L. doi:10.1073/PNAS.1319590110. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 3856802. PMID 24243955. Wikidata Q34385801.
References
- ^ "Sara Sawyer Biography". Retrieved 2021-05-11.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Sawyer, Sara Lea (2003). The final steps in the initiation of DNA replication: Activation of the pre-replication complex. ISBN 978-0-496-34844-2. OCLC 841789451.
- ^ "Sara Sawyer". BioFrontiers Institute. 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ "Lab News". Fred Hutch. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ a b "Ancient war of the world within". Fred Hutch. 2004-08-05. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ a b "Biologist Sara Sawyer Receives Early Career Award from White House". cns.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ a b "President Obama Honors Outstanding Early-Career Scientists". whitehouse.gov. 2011-09-26. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ Biosciences, Darwin (2020-08-18). "Darwin Biosciences licenses rapid, noninvasive, on-site COVID-19 surveillance technology from the University of Colorado Boulder". GlobeNewswire News Room. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ "CoVLab". Darwin Biosciences. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ "New CU Boulder COVID-19 test". University of Colorado Boulder. 2020-02-05. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ "2% of people carry 90% of COVID-19 virus, and roommates are safer than you think". CU Boulder Today. 2021-03-15. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ "Basic Sciences researcher receives Burroughs Wellcome career award". Fred Hutch. 2006-07-06. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ "Sara Sawyer Named Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator". molecularbiosci.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ "Sara Sawyer receives Omenn Prize". molecularbiosci.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
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