Sara Pensa

Hughes Hall crest
Hughes Hall
  • Assistant Research Professor (Khaled Group)
Sara Pensa

Contact

Connect

About

Dr Sara Pensa received her PhD in Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Turin, Italy. She was then awarded a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (FP7) to study mammary gland developmental pathways and their link to cancer in the laboratory of Prof Christine Watson at the Department of Pathology, Cambridge. She joined Prof Khaled's lab in 2014, where her research focuses on the characterisation of the early stages of breast cancer, with the aim to find better strategies for the early detection and treatment of the disease. More broadly interested in health and research inequalities and research capacity strengthening in low- and middle- income countries, she also recently completed a MSc in Public Health with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr Pensa is passionate about race and gender equality and women empowerment. She is a member of the Department of Pharmacology Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee and of the University Research Culture Steering Committee, and was a member of the Race Equality Network committee from 2022 to 2024.

Publications

Selected publications

A single-cell atlas enables mapping of homeostatic cellular shifts in the adult human breast. Reed A*, Pensa S*, Steif A, Stenning J, Kunz D, He P, Twigger AJ, Kania K, Barrow-McGee R, Goulding I, Gomm J, Jones L, Marioni JC, Khaled WT. Transcriptional changes in the mammary gland during lactation revealed by single cell sequencing of cells from human milk Bach K*, Pensa S*, Zarocsinceva M, Kania K, Stockis J, Pinaud S, Lazarus KA, Shehata M, Simões BM, Greenhalgh AR, Howell SJ, Clarke RB, Caldas C, Halim TYF, Marioni JC, Khaled WT BCL11A interacts with SOX2 to control the expression of epigenetic regulators in lung squamous carcinoma. Lazarus KA, Hadi F, Zambon E, Bach K, Santolla MF, Watson JK, Correia LL, Das M, Ugur R, Pensa S, Becker L, Campos LS, Ladds G, Liu P, Evan GI, McCaughan FM, Le Quesne J, Lee JH, Calado D, Khaled WT. Differentiation dynamics of mammary epithelial cells revealed by single-cell RNA sequencing Bach K, Pensa S, Grzelak M, Hadfield J, Adams DJ, Marioni JC, Khaled WT.