Dr Sara Howden

Biography

Dr Howden completed a BSc at the University of Melbourne in 2003, and joined the MCRI as an honours student. She received an "Australian Postgraduate Award" and completed her PhD in 2008 at the MCRI after working extensively with bacterial artificial chromosomes, including genetic manipulation and large-scale purification of, and effective introduction and targeted integration into human cells. In 2008 Dr Howden was offered a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of stem cell pioneer, Dr James Thomson, at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, USA). This was supported by an Overseas Biomedical (CJ Martin) Fellowship. During her postdoctoral years Dr Howden gained vast expertise with regards to pluripotent stem cell derivation, culture and genetic modification and was first to describe targeted gene repair of patient-specific iPS cells. She has extensive experience with the CRISPR/Cas9 system and has recently developed a one-step protocol that permits rapid and efficient derivation of gene-edited iPS cells from human fibroblasts. After returning to the Australia, she joined the laboratory of CIA Little in 2016 as a Senior Research Officer and has a joint role as director of the MCRI Gene Editing core facility.

Research Interest

Kidney Development, Disease and Regeneration