For her eighth birthday, Sarah Moore asked family and friends to make donations to St. Jude in her honor. Receiving a postcard of a smiling little boy recovering from a brain tumor was a humbling reminder of the important work that St. Jude does. From that moment on, she knew she wanted to pursue a career focused on curing children with cancer.
Moore received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and chemistry in 2019 from the University of California, San Diego. She spent two years as an undergraduate researcher conducting studies regarding DNA double strand-break repair in the context of cancer. Following her graduation, Moore decided to attend the St. Jude Graduate School for Biomedical Sciences because it gave her an opportunity to pursue clinical research that combined both her curiosity for science with her aspiration to help pediatric cancer patients. She earned her master's degree from the St. Jude Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in April 2021.
Moore currently works in the lab of Paulina Velasquez, MD, in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, where her research interests include cancer biology and immunotherapy.
“St. Jude is unlike any other research institution, in that there is no division between the clinical and research staff,” she says. “The line between bench and clinic is blurred as we all come together for our mission to treat children with catastrophic diseases. I am so thankful to be a part of this mission because it is a constant reminder of the beneficial impact that scientific contributions made in the lab can have on the patients.”
Hometown: San Mateo, California