ACA Election Candidate: Sara Andres 

Assistant Professor, Co-Manager of McMaster Macromolecular Crystallography Facility, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada

Education

BSc, Biochemistry, University of Guelph (2005); PhD, Biochemistry, McMaster University (2011); Post-Doctoral Fellow, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute of Health (2012-2017).

Professional Activities

ACA Meeting Poster Co-Chair (2021-23); Buffalo-Hamilton-Toronto (BHT) Crystallography Site Co-Coordinator (2017-present); Member of the Environmental and Mutagenesis Genomics Society (2015-2017; 2022); McMaster Structural Biology x ChemBio Journal Club (2018-present); McMaster Chemical Biology Graduate Program Advisory Panel Member (2022-present); McMaster Biochemistry Research Advisory Committee Member; McMaster Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Mentor (2021-present); McMaster WISE GenSTEM Conference, Workshop Leader (2020-2022).

Research Interests

My research group is focused on the fundamental mechanisms that carry out DNA repair and DNA damage tolerance in bacteria, to find new ways to combat antimicrobial resistance. We use biochemistry and microbiology, combined with x-ray crystallography, small-angle x-ray scattering and atomic force microscopy to find the key protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions underlying DNA repair mechanisms.

Statement

It would be an honour to be the Canadian representative for the ACA. The ACA was my first major research meeting as a graduate student and was pivotal for my PhD. I presented a poster on a crystal structure I was having trouble phasing, but from discussions at the poster, was given an idea that led to me solving the structure and earning my PhD. Louise Dawe and David Rose also judged my poster, and it won the Louis Delbaere Pauling poster prize. It was the first meeting where I saw how collegial and supportive our structural community is. Now as an assistant professor, I have been involved in the ACA as poster co-chair, both virtually (2021) and in-person (2022). Our poster presenters showcase an amazing breadth of research, where structure can be macromolecular, small molecule, powders, materials, and more, and really emphasize how important structure is to science. Being involved with the ACA so far has allowed me to connect with colleagues, where structure is our common language and I have found it to be an extremely supportive scientific community. I want to show others how amazing our ACA is, and as the Canadian representative for the ACA, I want to continue to engage people and encourage our Canadian members to be involved in this community, as well as encouraging our up-and-coming structural scientists. With the advent of AlphaFold/ColabFold for macromolecular structure, it’s even more important for all scientists to understand structural science and is something I continue to promote when supporting students in the x-ray facility I co-manage, as well as teaching my undergraduate course on the structure and function of macromolecules. If given the opportunity to be the Canadian representative on the ACA, I look forward to building on Gerald Audette’s excellent work in engaging the Canadian structural science community, representing the needs of the Canadian contingent, and promoting Canadian involvement in the ACA.