Sarah McCarthy
Education
B.S. University of California, Berkeley 2003
Biosketch
I am a first year GSBSE student hailing from Santa Cruz, California. I received my Bachelors of Science in Genetics and Plant Molecular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2003, where I graduated with highest honors and received the Plant and Microbial Biology Departmental award for academic excellence. I completed my senior honors thesis work in the plant molecular genetics and ecophysiology lab of Howard Hughes Investigator Dr. Krishna Niyogi. My work in the Niyogi lab involved identifying the molecular basis for pigment-deficiency in a collection of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutants. After moving to Maine in 2004, I began working in the neuromolecular biology lab of Dr. Hadley Wilson Horch at Bowdoin College. In the Horch lab, I identified candidate genes involved in nerve regeneration in the auditory system of the Mediterranean cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus, as well as characterized developmental and adult expression of the axon guidance cue semaphorin-2a. In 2011, I began working as a compounding pharmacy technician at a Maine independent pharmacy, making injectable phamaceuticals for local healthcare providers. Here, I learned a great deal about sterile technique, drug chemistry, and good compounding practices. I am currently rotating in Dr Leif Oxburgh’s lab at Maine Medical Center Research Institute where I am examining the role of SMAD4 in embryonic kidney development.
