Sarah Stapleton completed her BSc in Biomedical science at University of Technology Sydney, graduating with first class honours. She was awarded the Dean’s Merit List for Academic Excellence during her undergraduate studies. During her studies, Sarah pursued her interest in the molecular basis of cancer by majoring in cellular pathology and undertaking research with the Tran Lab focusing on microRNA regulation in Head and Neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Sarah is now a PhD candidate  working in the Lab of Associate Professor Nham Tran at the University of Technology Sydney. Her project, “Building a non-coding RNA system biology network to identify mechanistic pathways in oral cancers”, utilises bioinformatic techniques and molecular techniques to identify and validated an interactome of non-coding RNA with oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes in oral cancers.