Sarah Zanon Agapito

Sarah Agapito completed a PhD (2011-2014) in plant genetics with the CropScience Department at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil. She undertook a Master of Plant Genetics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina and Bachelor Degree in Agronomy from that same university in 2008. Sarah has been appointed to the UN Roster of Biosafety Experts in 2013 by the Brazilian Government. She has been actively participating in the Network of Laboratories for the Detection and Identification of Living Modified Organisms that is hosted by the Biosafety Clearing House Portal as part of the Clearing-House Mechanism of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. In addition, Sarah has been a consultant to multiple government and non-governmental agencies in Brazil and Norway, and has organized two international biosafety courses, the Holistic Foundations for Assessment and Regulation of Genetic Engineering and Genetically Modified Organisms, in collaboration to GenØk, TWN and the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2010 and 2013). In 2014, Sarah has also contributed to the organization and lecture of a UNEP/GEF Biosafety course in Swaziland, Africa. Her research experience includes plant breeding, plant genetic diversity and conservation, and risk assessment of genetically modified organisms. Specific expertise are: molecular characterization of plant-pathogen systems, in vitro techniques for its use in conservation of wild species, and the biochemical and genetic characterization of transgenic crop plants and transgene flow to wild relatives (particularly as it relates to environmental safety), and transcriptomics (particular dsRNA) and proteomics. The main goal of her current research is to uncover the roles of transgenes in gene regulation in plant systems and to apply that knowledge to assessing their safe use in food and the environment.