Sarra Jamieson is relishing her new life and job in Western Australia.
In 2007, Sarra and her husband Chris moved from the United Kingdom to Perth as part of the relocation of Professor Jenefer Blackwell’s research team from Cambridge to the Institute.
Sarra had been working in genetic research with Professor Blackwell for the past five years so was a member of the core team which would establish the research laboratory in Australia.
As someone who loves to travel, Sarra jumped at the chance to move down under and says she now has a whole new continent to explore.
“I have been lucky enough to be able to travel quite widely in the past, both for work and pleasure, and we have already started to visit some new and amazing places since arriving here,” says Sarra.
“Last year we were lucky enough to take a trip to Arnhem Land and to attend the Garma Festival of Indigenous Culture which was an amazing experience.“
In her role in the Institute’s new Genetics and Health Unit, Sarra will be responsible for two research projects.
The first is looking at the genetics of otitis media, a common disease of the middle ear, in West Australian children. Sarra says that otitis media is a complex disease where susceptibility is influenced by both environment and genetics.
“Whilst there has been significant progress made in understanding the environmental risk factors that influence susceptibility to otitis media, little work has been done on understanding the role played by genetics,” explains Sarra.
“It is also important to consider the interactions that occur between environmental and genetic risk factors.”
For the study, Sarra hopes to recruit 1,000 children who have had recurrent episodes of acute otitis media, and their parents, to try to answer these questions.
Sarra’s second project will look at the role of genetics and epigenetics in the development of congenital defects following infections during pregnancy with pathogens such as toxoplasma or cytomegalovirus.
Genetic epidemiology, how human genetics can influence health and disease in the population, is an area which has always interested Sarra and her research has always focused on genetics and infectious diseases. Between 1999 and 2003, she completed her PhD in Human Genetics with Professor Blackwell at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research with her research project investigating the genetic susceptibility to tuberculosis and leprosy in a Brazilian population.
She then continued at the Institute and grew her knowledge base by looking at infectious diseases in not only Brazil but also Gambia, China and various countries across Europe. This gave Sarra the opportunity to visit collaborators in Brazil.
“In Brazil, I spent some time teaching students in the lab and was able to meet study participants. Brazil is such an amazing place and my time there was a really rewarding experience.”
Then came the big move to Australia.
“It is such a big change for us but we are loving every minute of it, especially living amongst the wildlife out in the hills.”
Sarra’s immediate research focus is to ensure her two projects get underway and to help get the laboratory’s genotyping facilities firmly established.
“These facilities are new to the Institute but will allow other researchers to start including genetic epidemiology and epigenetic research into their ongoing studies.”
Sarra also hopes to learn new techniques, which means more travel.
“My work on epigenetics and infection in utero is seeing some new collaborations unfold in Sydney and I hope to be able to spend some time with one of these groups later in 2008 to learn some new techniques that will be important to my work.”
Sarra says that like many researchers at the Institute, the main driving force behind her research is the hope that the knowledge this research brings will ultimately help to improve important health issues in our population.
And now Sarra has a whole new population and genetic and environmental factors to explore in her new home continent.
Last updated 17 June 2008
