Dr Sarah Best, Lab Head | WEHI Researcher Profile

Q: Dissecting the glioma tumour microenvironment

We use a variety of spatial technologies to investigate the tumour microenvironment, including transcriptomics and metabolomics, to better understand the architecture of glioma.

Q: Understand tumour heterogeneity in response to treatment and time

The lab uses a variety of genomic techniques with a strong focus on technologies that can resolve cellular complexity, such as single cell transcriptomics, spatial transcriptomics, Nanostring and MIBIscope.

Q: Establish genetically engineered mouse models

Our lab is developing a strong foundation of pre-clinical models to study glioma development in immune-competent systems with an intact blood brain barrier.

Q: Identify new treatment options through the development of patient derived models and high throughput drug screening

Our lab generates patient derived models (eg. neuropshere, and patient derived xenografts) to test new anti-cancer agents and combinations.

Q: Developing novel clinical trials for patients with brain cancer

Our lab is intimately involved with the Australia-first perioperative clinical trial program for brain cancer, and is leading the translational research for these studies.

Q: Using single-cell omics to determine disease mechanism and improve clinical management of children with epilepsy

Correct brain development is critically dependent on genetic and environmental cues and signals. When the process goes wrong it can result in malformations of cortical development and cause severe epilepsy, often requiring surgical resection of the affected brain regions. Exploiting technologies that allow the characterization of individual cells, Saskia, and her collaborators at MCRI are investigating how epilepsy arises.

About

Dr Sarah Best is a Laboratory Head and fundamental biology lead in the Brain Cancer Research Lab. In this position, Sarah brings her expertise from multiple solid tumours to tackle the challenges of brain cancer.

After completing her PhD on breast cancer at WEHI, Sarah moved to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston to study tumour suppressor genes in squamous non-melanoma skin cancer. In 2016, Sarah returned to WEHI to work on precision therapies for KEAP1-mutant lung cancer. In 2018, Sarah was awarded the Griffith University Discovery Award (Research Australia) for her work on biomarkers for KEAP1-mutant lung cancer.

In 2021, Sarah was appointed to Laboratory Head, co-leading the Brain Cancer Research Laboratory with Dr Jim Whittle (clinical lead) and Dr Saskia Freytag (bioinformatics lead) in the newly established Brain Cancer Centre at WEHI.

Sarah has been supported by Carrie’s Beanies for Brain Cancer (CB4BC), the Victorian Cancer Agency, Cancer Australia, Cancer Council Victoria, MRFF and NHMRC.

Education

Grants and funding

Publications

Selected publications from Dr Sarah Best

O’Keeffe P, Nouri Y, Saw HS, Moore Z, Baldwin TM, Olechnowicz SWZ, Jabbari JS, Squire DM, Leslie S, Wang C, You Y, Ritchie ME, Cross RS, Jenkins MR, Audiger C, Naik SH, Whittle JR, Freytag S, Best SA, Hickey PF, Amann-Zalcenstein D, Bowden R, Brown DV. TIRE-seq simplifies transcriptomics via integrated RNA capture and library preparation. Scientific Reports. 2025;15(1):10.1038/s41598-025-98282-8

Whittle JR, Kriel J, Fatunla OE, Lu T, Moffet JJD, Spiteri M, Best SA, Freytag S. Spatial omics shed light on the tumour organisation of glioblastoma. Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology. 2025;167:10.1016/j.semcdb.2024.12.006

Kay KE, Lee J, Hong ES, Beilis J, Dayal S, Wesley ER, Mitchell S, Wang SZ, Silver DJ, Volovetz J, Johnson S, McGraw M, Grabowski M, Lu T, Freytag L, Narayana VK, Freytag S, Best SA, Whittle JR, Wang Z, Reizes O, Yu JS, Hazen SL, Brown JM, Bayik D, Lathia J. Tumor cell-derived spermidine promotes a pro-tumorigenic immune microenvironment in glioblastoma via CD8+ T cell inhibition. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2025;135(2):10.1172/jci177824

Whittle J, Rosenthal M, Spiteri M, Tobler R, Topp M, Cain S, Jones J, Shaya S, Valkovic A, Fatunla O, Dimou J, Roberts-Thomson S, McArdle D, Lui E, Nijagal B, Mitchell C, Grimmond S, Best S, Freytag S, Drummond K. CTNI-15. A PERIOPERATIVE STUDY OF SAFUSIDENIB IN PATIENTS WITH IDH1 MUTATED GLIOMA. Neuro-Oncology. 2024;26(Supplement_8):10.1093/neuonc/noae165.0382

Furst L, Roussel E, Leung R, George A, Li J, Best S, Whittle J, Cain J, Firestein R, Faux M, Eisenstat D. CNSC-36. REGULATION OF CELL FATE IN PAEDIATRIC HIGH-GRADE GLIOMA BY THE HOMEOBOX TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR DLX2. Neuro-Oncology. 2024;26(Supplement_8):10.1093/neuonc/noae165.0192

Cain SA, Topp M, Rosenthal M, Tobler R, Freytag S, Best SA, Whittle JR, Drummond KJ. A perioperative study of Safusidenib in patients with IDH1-mutated glioma. Future Oncology. 2024;20(33):10.1080/14796694.2024.2383064

Lu T, Freytag L, Moffet J, Kriel J, Whittle J, Freytag S, Best SA. OS07.5.A MULTI-MODAL EXAMINATION OF SPATIAL HETEROGENEITY IN THE ASTROCYTOMA MICROENVIRONMENT. Neuro-Oncology. 2024;26(Supplement_5):10.1093/neuonc/noae144.069

Whittle JR, Rosenthal M, Spiteri M, Cain S, Topp MD, Shaya S, Jones J, Valkovic A, Fatunla O, Dimou J, Tobler R, Roberts-Thomson S, McArdle D, Lui E, Nijagal B, Grimmond SM, Best SA, Freytag S, Drummond K. 443O A perioperative study of safusidenib in patients with IDH1 mutated glioma. Annals of Oncology. 2024;35:10.1016/j.annonc.2024.08.513

Furst LM, Roussel EM, Leung RF, George AM, Best SA, Whittle JR, Firestein R, Faux MC, Eisenstat DD. The Landscape of Pediatric High-Grade Gliomas: The Virtues and Pitfalls of Pre-Clinical Models. Biology. 2024;13(6):10.3390/biology13060424

Moffet J, Kriel J, Lu T, Freytag L, Whittle J, Best S, Freytag S. Abstract 5498: Multi-modal examination of spatial heterogeneity in the astrocytoma microenvironment. Cancer Research. 2024;84(6_Supplement):10.1158/1538-7445.am2024-5498