Forskningsintressen

Sarah O’Keefe is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki with over ten years of experience working at the biology/chemistry interface; first as a medicinal chemist and later as a biochemist and cell biologist. Sarah joined the University in 2022 to investigate how proteins are synthesised at the endoplasmic reticulum in parasites that infect and cause disease in humans. She uses biochemical, chemical and structural biology approaches to develop small molecule inhibitors that can be used to probe the mechanisms of parasitic protein production. These molecules are leads for the development of new drugs to treat parasitic diseases, such as leishmaniasis and malaria.