Sabine Petry, Ph.D is originally from Germany and performed her thesis research with Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (UK). She was involved in solving the first crystal structure of a classical translation factor bound to the entire ribosome, work that helped increase our knowledge of how translation factors drive protein synthesis in the ribosome. Sabine joined Ron Vale's lab at UCSF as a postdoctoral HHMI Fellow of the Life Science Research Foundation, where she pursued the study of a less understood and larger molecular entity, the mitotic spindle. Sabine’s research focused on understanding how microtubule nucleation is regulated in the mitotic spindle, which is poorly understood. It led to the discovery of a new microtubule nucleation mechanism, in which microtubules arise by nucleation from existing microtubules. Microtubule branching helps explain many unresolved aspects of how the mitotic spindle is assembled, and raises new questions about its role in building the microtubule cytoskeleton of the cell. In 2013, Sabine Petry was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology, and affiliated faculty member in the Department of Chemistry, as well as the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University. The Petry Lab combines high-resolution microscopy methods along with structural studies to study how the microtubule cytoskeleton builds cellular structures. Sabine recently received the prestigious NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the Kimmel Scholar Award for Cancer Research, the Pew Award for Biomedical Research, and the Packard Award for Science and Engineering.