Biography

Professor Sarah Palmer is the Co-Director of the Centre for Virus Research at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney School of Medicine.

Prior to taking up this position in early 2013, she was a Senior Researcher at the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden from 2008 to 2012. From 2000 to 2008, she headed the Virology Core Facility of the HIV Drug Resistance Program, National Cancer Institute, US National Institutes of Health, where she led efforts to develop and perfect highly-sensitive assays such as the single-copy assay and single-cell sequencing assay which provide new insights into HIV pathogenesis and persistence during long-term suppressive therapy.

Professor. Palmer has her Ph.D. in Medical Sciences (Virology) from the Karolinksa Institutet, and conducted her post-doctoral studies at the Center for AIDS Research, Stanford University Medical School.

Keywords

HIV/AIDS, Virus diseases, Infection and immunity, Virology

Themes

Infection and Immunological Conditions

Research Focus

HIV Pathogenesis and HIV Reservoirs: Our group’s principal areas of research interest focus on molecular and medical virology and the application of innovative techniques and assays which provide new insights into disease pathogenesis and treatment, especially for HIV. Our current work focuses on understanding the genetic characteristics and dynamics of persistent HIV across a range of tissues and cells to guide and assess treatment interventions designed to reduce persistent HIV reservoirs and inform HIV eradication strategies.

Other Affiliations

Faculty of Medicine and Health > FMH Medical Research Institutes > Westmead Institute for Medical Research

Awards and Recognition

  • 2014 – Westmead Millennium Institute Research Prize
  • 2016 - The Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Research, The University of Sydney Medical School
  • 2017 - The Westmead Institute for Medical Research WISE Award

Education

  • BS, Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia USA
  • MT/ASCP, Medical Technology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
  • MS, Medical Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  • PhD, Medical Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for AIDS Research, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA