Sarah Moore teaches and conducts research at the intersection of engineering and biology. Her research focuses on biomolecular engineering, primarily engineering proteins for applications in medicine. Current research in the Moore Lab includes engineering proteins for diagnosing and treating cancer, and developing methods to enable protein therapeutics to access drug targets in the central nervous system.

Her doctoral research included engineering highly stable proteins for molecular imaging of cancer, for improved detection and surgical resection.

Moore joined the faculty at Smith College in 2012. She has previously taught Engineering for Everyone; Fundamental Engineering Principles; Introduction to Biomedical Engineering; and Engineering and Cancer. Students who have conducted research in the Moore Lab come from a variety of majors, including engineering, biology, biochemistry, chemistry and neuroscience.

Whenever possible, Moore enjoys spending time outside, including running, cycling, backpacking, snowshoeing, and rock climbing.

Selected Publications

S.J. Moore, M.G. Hayden Gephart, J.M. Bergen, Y.S. Su, H. Rayburn, M.P. Scott, J.R. Cochran. “Engineered knottin peptide enables non-invasive optical imaging of intracranial medulloblastoma.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2013.110(36): 14598-14603.

S.J. Moore, C.L. Leung, H.K. Norton, and J.R. Cochran. “Engineering Agatoxin, a cystine-knot peptide from spider venom, as a molecular probe for in vivo tumor imaging.” PLOS ONE, 2013. 8: e60498.

H. Jiang, S.J. Moore, S. Liu, H. Liu, Z. Miao, F.V. Cochran, Y. Liu, M. Tian, J.R. Cochran, H. Zhang, and Z. Cheng. “A novel radiofluorinated agouti-related protein for tumor angiogenesis imaging.” Amino Acids, 2013. DOI: 10.1007/s00726-012-1391-y.

S.J. Moore and J.R. Cochran. “Engineering Knottins as Novel Binding Agents.”Methods in Enzymology, 2012. 503: 223-251.

S.J. Moore, C.L. Leung, and J.R. Cochran. “Knottins: Disulfide-bonded Therapeutic and Diagnostic Peptides.” Drug Discovery Today: Technologies, 2012. 9: e3-e11.

Selected Honors and Awards

• 2015—NIH R15 AREA grant for her research project: "Engineering therapeutic and diagnostic proteins for tumor biomarker mesothelin," July 2015–June 2018
• 2015—Faculty Teaching Award, awarded annually by the students of Smith College through the Student Government Association for excellence in teaching and mentoring
• 2011—Gerald Lieberman Fellowship, Stanford University
• 2010—Siebel Scholars Fellowship
• 2010—Best Poster Award, Annual Symposium of the Protein Society
• 2009—Centennial Teaching Assistant Award, Stanford University
• 2008—Stanford Graduate Fellowship, Medtronic Fellow
• 2006—NSF Graduate Research Fellowship