Dr Sarah Best
(BSc Hons, PhD)
Laboratory Head, Personalised Oncology Division, WEHI Brain Cancer Centre
Department of Medical Biology, The University of Melbourne
Laboratory Head & Fundamental Biology Lead, Brain Cancer Research Laboratory, WEHI
Dr Sarah Best is a Laboratory Head and Fundamental Biology Lead in the Brain Cancer Research Laboratory. In this position, Sarah brings her expertise from multiple solid tumours to tackle the challenges of brain cancer.
After completing her PhD on breast cancer at WEHI, Sarah moved to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston to study tumour suppressor genes in squamous non-melanoma skin cancer.
In 2016, Sarah returned to WEHI to work on precision therapies for KEAP1-mutant lung cancer. In 2018, Sarah was awarded the Griffith University Discovery Award (Research Australia) for her work on biomarkers for KEAP1-mutant lung cancer.
In 2021, Sarah was appointed to Laboratory Head, co-leading the Brain Cancer Research Laboratory with Dr Jim Whittle (Clinical Lead) and Dr Saskia Freytag (Bioinformatics Lead) in the Brain Cancer Centre at WEHI. Sarah has been supported by Carrie’s Beanies for Brain Cancer (CB4BC), the Victorian Cancer Agency, Cancer Australia and the NHMRC.
Sarah’s interest lies in the genetics of solid tumours, with a focus on the design of personalised therapeutics for patients. Specifically, the genetic manipulation of tumours using Genetically Engineered Mouse Models (GEMMs). Through the generation of sophisticated models that arise within the organ of interest in immune-intact system, the tumour microenvironment can be interrogated, including tumour metabolism (Cell Metabolism 2018, 2022) and the immune microenvironment (Nature Communications 2019, Journal Thoracic Oncology 2020).