Dr. Sakharkar is a member of the Drug Discovery and Development Research Group. She joined the college in 2014 following her appointment as a professor at the Graduate School of Life and Environmental Science at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. Dr. Sakharkar obtained her PhD from the National University of Singapore, followed by postdoctoral training at Stanford University. She teaches courses on pharmaceutical biotechnology, pharmacogenomics, personalised medicine, and drug design.
Research
Dr. Sakharkar’s research interests are in drug target identification and validation using multiple cross-disciplinary approaches. Currently, her lab is investigating the role of PPAR gamma and its targets in breast cancer and Parkinson’s disease. She also has an active research program that involves designing novel antibiotic-phytochemical drug conjugates by using fragment-based drug design for treating bacterial infections in dairy cattle. Her research is funded by Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, NSERC, Government of Saskatchewan, SaskMilk, and Mitacs.