Biochemist Sacha Pulsford is opening up nature’s toolbox to tackle Earth-sized problems

What do molecular biology and protein design have to do with improving sustainability and reducing our reliance on fossil fuels?

Plenty, according to PhD student Sacha Pulsford, who studies how proteins evolve and how they speed up chemical reactions. She’s only just started her PhD research and still has lots to explore, but she’s “really excited” to see where it leads.

Sacha’s interest was piqued during her Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons) degree at ANU, where she majored in plant science and genetics. She worked with “a lot of different labs” during her honours research, using genetic tools to engineer plants to be more resilient to environmental stresses or have more capacity for growth. Understanding how proteins work was central to all of those projects.

Now, for her PhD research, she’s “bringing some of the story that I worked on for Honours” to a new team in the Research School of Chemistry studying proteins in bacteria.

Read the full story at the Australian National University College of Science website.