Staff Research Faculty Member
303.270.2781
sasses@njhealth.org
Education
University of Colorado, Boulder, PhD, Psychology and Neuroscience, 2009;
University of Colorado, Boulder, MA, Psychology, 2006;
University of Colorado, Boulder, BA, Psychology 2002
Background
Sarah Sasse graduated with a PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience in 2009 and began her postdoctoral fellowship in the new laboratory of Dr. Anthony Gerber several months thereafter. While much of her graduate work involved exploring the neural circuitry and biochemical mechanisms underlying the initiation, adaptation, and modification of endogenous glucocorticoid-mediated stress responses, Dr. Sasse is now using the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) as a tool for identifying genes and elucidating their specific roles in mediating therapeutic effects in airway smooth muscle, a key target of structural and functional pathology in asthma. Current projects include: 1) exploring the temporal dynamics of the GR-regulated transcriptome through quantifying GR-induced changes in nascent transcription rates, and 2) studying the role of the GR target gene, Klf15, in airway function and as a downstream mediator of the GR response in vivo using smooth muscle-specific knockout and transgenic mice.