Sara Sohail

Dr. Sara Sohail is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at Swarthmore College. She holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Haverford College, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago, and completed her postdoctoral training as a Nancy Nossal Fellow at the NIH's Laboratory of Chemical Physics.

Her research focuses on the physical mechanisms of amyloid assembly using advanced fluorescence techniques:

• Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) to characterize amyloid polymorphism
• Physical forces driving polymorphic amyloid assembly
• Functional and disease-related amyloids
• Peptide self-assembly pathways
• Nanobiomaterial applications

Dr. Sohail's recent publications demonstrate a strong interdisciplinary focus combining biophysical techniques with chemical biology. Her work frequently employs single-molecule spectroscopy, FRET imaging, and computational approaches to study protein aggregation phenomena, particularly in neurodegenerative disease contexts. The research shows consistent application of ultrafast spectroscopic methods to photosynthetic systems and protein dynamics.

She currently advises undergraduate researchers including Jai Rapaka and Bella Thoen in her lab, which focuses on single-fibril characterization using FLIM. Her team investigates solution conditions affecting amyloid polymorphism for both disease-related and functional amyloids.