Sarah Amalia Teichmann (born 1975) is a German scientist who is head of cellular genetics at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and a visiting research group leader at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). She serves as director of research (equivalent to Professor) in the Cavendish Laboratory, at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and a senior

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

at Churchill College, Cambridge.

Education

Teichmann was educated at the

European School, Karlsruhe The European School, Karlsruhe, commonly known as ESK, is one of three European Schools in Germany and one of thirteen across the European Union (EU). Founded in 1962, the school prioritises, for enrolment purposes, the children of staff of th ...

in Germany from 1981 to 1993 where she completed the

European Baccalaureate The European Baccalaureate (or EB) is a bilingual educational diploma, which certifies the completion of secondary studies in a European School or Accredited European School by the Board of Governors of the intergovernmental organisation, "The Eu ...

in 1993. Teichmann went on to study the Natural Sciences Tripos at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

and was awarded a first class

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1996. In 1999, she completed her PhD supervised by Cyrus Chothia at the

Laboratory of Molecular Biology The Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) is a research institute in Cambridge, England, involved in the revolution in molecular biology which occurred in the 1950–60s. Since then it has remained a major medical r ...

(LMB) on

genome evolution Genome evolution is the process by which a genome changes in structure (sequence) or size over time. The study of genome evolution involves multiple fields such as structural analysis of the genome, the study of genomic parasites, gene and ancient ...

Career and research

Following her PhD, Teichmann did

postdoctoral research A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

supervised by

Janet Thornton Dame Janet Maureen Thornton, (born 23 May 1949) is a senior scientist and director emeritus at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). She is one of the world's leading researche ...

at University College London and funded by the

Beit Memorial Fellowships for Medical Research The Beit Memorial Medical Fellowships were one of the most prestigious and competitive fellowships for post-doctoral or medical degree research in medicine in the United Kingdom. The Fellowships were founded in 1909 by Sir Otto Beit, a German-born ...

. From 2001-2012, she was a Medical Research Council (MRC) Programme Leader, studying patterns in protein interactions and transcriptional regulatory networks. In 2013 Teichmann was appointed a joint position at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). From 2005 to 2015 she served as a

teaching fellow A teaching fellow (sometimes referred to as a TF) is an individual at a higher education institution, including universities, whose role involves teaching and potentially pedagogic research. The work done by teaching fellows can vary enormously fr ...

and director of studies at

. Since 2016 Teichmann has served as the head of Cellular Genetics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and a visiting research group leader at the EBI. Teichmann's research investigates gene expression and

protein complex A protein complex or multiprotein complex is a group of two or more associated polypeptide chains. Protein complexes are distinct from multienzyme complexes, in which multiple catalytic domains are found in a single polypeptide chain. Protein ...

assembly using both wet laboratory and computational biology techniques. In particular her research group: Teichmann's research has been funded by the European Research Council (ERC), the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...

, the

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 1,800 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

(EMBO), the

Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europe ...

and the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). Teichmann has supervised several PhD students to completion including Madan Babu, Varodom Charoensawa Subhajyoti De Jay Han, Sarah Kay Kummerfeld Tina Perica, and Jing Su, and several

ers who have gone on to become Principal investigators (PIs).

Awards and honours

Teichmann has won a number of awards. In 2010, she was awarded the

Colworth Medal The Colworth Medal is awarded annually by the Biochemical Society to an outstanding research biochemist under the age of 35 and working mainly in the United Kingdom. The award is one of the most prestigious recognitions for young scientists in the ...

from the Biochemical Society. In 2012, Teichman was awarded the Francis Crick Medal and Lecture, membership of the

(EMBO) and the Lister Prize from the

Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine The Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, informally known as the Lister Institute, was established as a research institute (the British Institute of Preventive Medicine) in 1891, with bacteriologist Marc Armand Ruffer as its first director, u ...

. In 2015 she was awarded the Michael and Kate Bárány Award for young investigators by the Biophysical Society and the EMBO Gold Medal. Teichmann was elected a

Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) is an award for medical scientists who are judged by the UK Academy of Medical Sciences for the "excellence of their science, their contribution to medicine and society and the range of th ...

(FMedSci) in 2015. Her citation on election reads: Teichmann has also been an activist for women's careers in science through enabling scientists in families to advance their careers while working part-time. She chaired a ''Sex in Science'' debate at the Wellcome Trust on balancing family life with working in research. Teichmann was elected an

ISCB Fellow ISCB Fellowship is an award granted to scientists that the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) judges to have made “outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics”. , there are 76 Fellow ...

in 2016 by the

International Society for Computational Biology The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) is a scholarly society for researchers in computational biology and bioinformatics. The society was founded in 1997 to provide a stable financial home for the Intelligent Systems for Mole ...

. In 2020, Teichmann was recognised on ''The Times'' 'Science Power List' for her work on the Human Cell Atlas and elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

. She won the

Suffrage Science award The Suffrage Science award is a prize for women in science, engineering and computing founded in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS). There are three categories of awar ...

in 2012.

Personal life

Teichmann has two daughters. Teichmann is the co-author of the children's language education novel ''Teenage Detectives'', which she wrote as a teenager together with her mother Dr. Virginia Teichmann, an English-language university lecturer in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teichmann, Sarah Amalia 1975 births Living people German bioinformaticians Wellcome Trust Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge Alumni of University College London Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) Fellows of the International Society for Computational Biology Alumni of the European Schools German women scientists Female Fellows of the Royal Society