Dr Sarah Shigdar - A Researcher in Nanomedicine

Dr Sarah Shigdar

Dr Sarah Shigdar is currently the Senior Lecturer on Medical Science at Deakin University and the current President of the International Society of Aptamers. She is also the executive editor of the Aptamers Journal.

She has over 20 years’ experience as a biomedical scientist; completing her Bachelor of Biomedical Science in 1995; Masters in Laboratory Science in 2004 at RMIT and her PhD in Haematology in 2009 at Deakin University. Her career so far contributing over 50 papers of works to the science community – her contributions and work also paving the way for new medical treatments of the future.

This is Dr Sarah Shigdar, taken on the day she received grant money for one of her research projects.

Image credit: Dr Sarah Shigdar

She heads the Laboratory of Aptamer Theranostics at Deakin University, leading a large research team that focuses on the development of synthetic antibodies called aptamers. Aptamers are made from sequences of RNA/DNA that can find and target cells and bind to them to block their function or create easier access for other drugs to those cells.

She has an interest in aptamers because their properties and nano size could be utilised to treat harder cancer such as brain cancers more effectively as current drug methods struggle to get through the blood brain barrier– aptamers holding a potential solution to this.

Video Interview With Dr Sarah Shigdar

Nanomedicine and Dr Sarah Shigdar

Dr Sarah Shigdar's work falls under the new and expanding field of nanomedicine. Her research is utilising the inherent properties of nanostructures- specifically aptamers - to create improved treatment and diagnostics for cancers, but this could also be done for other diseases with research and clinical trials.

The following section of activities for Nanomedicine have been created to teach some of the concepts of Dr Sarah Shigdar’s work on Aptamers and why they are useful. You can find these activities under the nanomedicine tab in the menu above.

If you would like to know more about Dr Sarah Shigdar or see any of her works, please click on the following links:

https://www.sarahshigdar.com/about-me

http://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/sarah-shigdar