Bio:

Sara obtained her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and philosophy from The University of Texas at Austin. She began research at UT investigating how to manipulate and reprogram the DNA instructions for bacteria through genetic engineering in the Freshman Research Initiative's Microbe Hackers Stream. As an undergraduate in Dr. George Bittner’s lab, her research and senior thesis focused on neuroplasticity; Sara investigated how the nervous system adapts to changes in its original connectivity to produce behavior, by designing and developing PEG-fused sensory-to-motor and motor-to-sensory animal models in rats, which also contributed to the study of nerve repair injuries. After graduation, Sara continued her neuroplasticity research in Dr. Bittner’s lab. More recently, Sara joined the Allen Institute in 2020 as a research associate on the Electrophysiology team, where she uses Patch-seq to aid in the characterization of genetic, morphological, and electrophysiological properties of neurons for the mouse and human brain.