Sarah Maskri, Ph.D.

I was born, and I grew up in Algeria. I am currently a Ph.D. fellow at the German Research Foundation, in Germany, with two stays abroad: one at the University of Oxford in the UK and one at the University of Stanford in the USA. I work in the field of computational drug design, medicinal chemistry of GPCRs, and Ion channel proteins. During the past, I worked as a research assistant at the University of New England College of Pharmacy in Portland, ME, USA, in computational drug design of new kinase inhibitors starting from green tea derivatives. I did a double MSc degree between the University of Strasbourg (France), Paris Diderot University (France), and University of Milano (Italy) in the fields of Medicinal chemistry/Artificial Intelligence/ In silico drug design. I obtained my BSc degree in Chemistry in Montpellier (France). I am a person who takes initiatives and has a great capacity for adaptation; as a fact, I am a global volunteer at the United Nations to fight for women's rights in South America. In general, I am professional with a friendly interaction style. I moved to Montréal and pursued Masters degree (Msc) at the University of Montréal, where I investigated how HIV infects the epithelial barrier of the gut. Next, I joined the laboratory of Dr. Amit Bar-Or to perform my Doctoral training between McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania, where I studied the progressive form of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and how the cross-talk between B cells and glial cells propagates inflammation in the brain of patients. 

Currently, I am a post-doctoral scientist at Columbia University where I am conducting a large-scale immunosenescence study to characterize the peripheral immune system in health and MS over the life span. Our goal is to help move towards personalized therapies based on the genetic signature of each patient. 

My mission is to guide young female in science, to encourage them to dream big and work hard to realize their dreams.