Sarah Hart

Biography

I came to Keele with an EPSRC International Life Science Interface Fellowship, worth £336,000, entitled “Development of Advanced Mass Spectrometric Approaches for the Analysis of the Proteome of Serum from Women with Pre-Eclampsia”.  This Fellowship enabled me to work with the Zubarev lab in Sweden and the Burlingame lab at UCSF on electron-mediated peptide dissociation methods.

My post-doctoral Research work from 2003-07 was in the Michael Barber Centre for Mass Spectrometry at Manchester University, supervised by Prof Simon Gaskell, on a project entitled “Investigation of the African trypanosome flagellar proteome”.

Prior to that, my PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology was at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, University College London. Supervised by Prof Michael Waterfield, the thesis title was “The Analysis of Protein Phosphorylation Sites using Affinity Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry”.

I direct the Keele University Mass Spectrometry Facility, based in the Huxley Building, alongside my research lab. Please feel free to contact me to discuss potential collaborations and service work.

Research and scholarship

ISTM Research theme: Healthcare Technologies

Link to: Keele Proteomics Mass Spectrometry Facility

My research interests are primarily in the field of biological mass spectrometry and its application to the improved understanding of biological and clinically-significant samples.

I have interests in the development of novel methods which improve our ability to process, analyse and derive valuable quantitative and qualitative information about the components of interest within complex biological samples. I have worked closely with industrial and academic partners to implement new methods in proteomics (Hart et al., J Am Soc Mass Spectrom., 2009).

I am interested in the gas-phase behaviour of large polypeptide ions (Lau et al., Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 2009), and in differences between the behaviour of product ions generated using different methods for fragmenting these polypeptides (Hart et al., Methods Mol. Biol. 2010).

Teaching

At Keele I am Research Strand Lead within the Medical School, and am closely involved with the INSPIRE team to embed research awareness in undergraduate medical education. I co-lead Unit 1, Year 1 (Emergencies) and am co-lead for the Year 1 Publication Based Paper. I am a tutor for Problem-Based Learning, Professional Development (PDT) and Enhanced Professional and Academic Student Support (EPASS), providing academic and pastoral support to students in preclinical years.

As a Post-Doc and then Research Fellow at the Michael Barber Centre for Mass Spectrometry, Manchester, I managed and delivered the successful CPD course ‘Mass Spectrometry for Protein & Peptide Scientists’. I taught on the MRes in Post-Genome Science, and was module co-ordinator for programs on Manchester’s Doctoral Training Centre in Systems Biology and MRes in Translational Medicine.

Further information

Memberships of professional organisations and external roles:

I was awarded Membership of the Royal Society for Chemistry (MRSC) in 2006.

I am an elected member of the British Mass Spectrometry Society committee and am currently Education secretary, heading the Education sub-committee.

I am a member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and the Biochemical Society.

I am also a registered STEM Ambassador, and regularly take part in public events promoting science and school events to help engage the next generation of young scientists, including Keele Community Day, I'm a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here! and regional Science Fairs.