Tabrizi graduated with a first-class degree in biochemistry from Heriot-Watt University in 1986 and an MB ChB from the University of Edinburgh in 1992, where she graduated with the Gold Medal (Ettles Scholar) for the most distinguished medical graduate.[2] She obtained a PhD at University College London in 2000.[6] During her time as a trainee neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), Queen Square, Sarah worked for Professors Anita Harding and David Marsden, both of whom would make a lasting impression on her.[7] She undertook an MRC Clinical Training Fellowship PhD studying mitochondrial dysfunction in neurodegeneration with Tony Schapira and Gillian Bates from 1996 to 1999 then obtained a Department of Health National Clinician Scientist Fellowship at the UCL Institute of Neurology in 2002 to work with John Collinge and Charles Weissmann on prion cell biology. She was promoted to UCL Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Neurologist in 2003, to Reader in 2007 and Full Professor in 2009.[8]
Researchedit
Tabrizi is distinguished for her work on mechanisms of cellular neurodegeneration[9][10][11][12][13] and in particular Huntington's disease mechanistic pathobiology, novel therapeutics, biomarkers, outcome measures and first in human clinical trials.[14][15] Amongst her achievements, she has identified key pathogenic mechanisms in cellular degeneration in prion disease,[16][17][18] identified a key role for the innate immune system in the pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease,[19] published the first assay of the mutant HD protein,[20] and designed and led two major, international, influential research initiatives, TRACK-HD and Track-On HD. To date these studies have yielded fundamental new insights into the preclinical phase of neurodegeneration in Huntington’s disease including identifying predictors of disease onset,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] progression, evidence of brain compensation and plasticity and neurobiological changes occurring twenty years before predicted disease onset, and her work established a battery of clinical trial outcome measures now being used in global clinical trials.[28][21][22][23][24][29] In 2017, her work identified an important new genetic modifier of disease progression in Huntington’s disease (MSH3, a mismatch repair protein), which has opened up new avenues of research into targeting DNA repair pathways as possible therapeutics for Huntington’s disease.[30][31][32] A major focus of her research now is to build understanding of how different DNA repair mechanisms are involved in modifying the development of Huntington’s disease. This knowledge to develop novel therapeutic approaches that could stop, slow down or reverse the progression of the disease by targeting the somatic expansion of the CAG repeat tract.[33][34][35]
Tabrizi gave a keynote presentation at the 2016 Google Zeitgeist Minds conference about her research, and the prospect of gene silencing for neurodegenerative disease.[36] She was the global lead Clinical Investigator for the first clinical trial of a 'gene silencing' or huntingtin-lowering antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) drug in Huntington's disease patients. The announcement of the ‘top line’ results from the Phase 1b/2a safety trial in December 2017 received widespread national and international media coverage and was covered in features by BBC News,[37] Guardian[38] and Nature.[39] In May 2019 the full results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.[40][41]
The potential of antisense oligonucleotides to treat neurodegenerative diseases was reviewed by Tabrizi in Science in 2020.[42] Tabrizi is currently working on several different approaches to treat Huntington’s disease, including testing novel ASOs targeting MSH3 to slow CAG repeat expansion, allele-selective approaches to target mutant HTT only, and new gene therapy approaches targeting the mutant HD gene.[43]
In 2020, Tabrizi published the Huntington’s Disease Young Adult Study (HD-YAS) studying premanifest HD gene carriers approximately 24 years from predicted onset of clinical symptoms using advanced neuroimaging, detailed cognitive testing and biofluid collection.[44] The cohort did not show any clinically meaningful functional impairment, yet there was evidence of elevated levels of neurofilament light protein, suggestive of very early neuronal damage, in those closest to expected symptom onset. HD-YAS will provide critical information on the very earliest signs of neurodegeneration, identifying a time at which a therapy could potentially be introduced to delay or even ultimately prevent the onset of clinical symptoms in HD.[44] This approach has implications beyond HD, providing a model for disease prevention in neurodegeneration and this work continues to be of major interest in the Tabrizi lab.[45]
In 2022, alongside colleagues at the HD Regulatory Science Consortium and CHDI, Tabrizi developed a novel staging framework, the Huntington’s Disease Integrated Staging System (HD-ISS), that assesses the progression of disease from birth.[46] Similar to the cancer staging system, the HD-ISS defines HD in four stages, from 0-3, and also biologically defines the disease as the presence of the HTT CAG repeat mutation. This will allow clinical trials much earlier in course of the disease process, and well in advance of when people show signs and symptoms of the disease, allowing the possibility of disease prevention in the future.
Tabrizi was the subject of profile articles in The Lancet in 2012 and The Lancet Neurology in 2017.[47][48]
As of May 2023, Tabrizi had authored over 370 publications, with over 34,000 citations for her research.[49]
^Deriziotis, Pelagia; André, Ralph; Smith, David M; Goold, Rob; Kinghorn, Kerri J; Kristiansen, Mark; Nathan, James A; Rosenzweig, Rina; Krutauz, Dasha; Glickman, Michael H; Collinge, John; Goldberg, Alfred L; Tabrizi, Sarah J (8 July 2011). "Misfolded PrP impairs the UPS by interaction with the 20S proteasome and inhibition of substrate entry". The EMBO Journal. 30 (15): 3065–3077. doi:10.1038/emboj.2011.224. PMC3160194. PMID 21743439.
^Kristiansen, Mark; Messenger, Marcus J.; Klöhn, Peter-Christian; Brandner, Sebastian; Wadsworth, Jonathan D. F.; Collinge, John; Tabrizi, Sarah J. (18 November 2005). "Disease-related Prion Protein Forms Aggresomes in Neuronal Cells Leading to Caspase Activation and Apoptosis". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 280 (46): 38851–38861. doi:10.1074/jbc.M506600200. PMID 16157591.
^Kristiansen, Mark; Deriziotis, Pelagia; Dimcheff, Derek E.; Jackson, Graham S.; Ovaa, Huib; Naumann, Heike; Clarke, Anthony R.; van Leeuwen, Fijs W.B.; Menéndez-Benito, Victoria; Dantuma, Nico P.; Portis, John L.; Collinge, John; Tabrizi, Sarah J. (April 2007). "Disease-Associated Prion Protein Oligomers Inhibit the 26S Proteasome". Molecular Cell. 26 (2): 175–188. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2007.04.001. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0012-2650-5. PMID 17466621.
^McKinnon, Chris; Goold, Rob; Andre, Ralph; Devoy, Anny; Ortega, Zaira; Moonga, Julie; Linehan, Jacqueline M.; Brandner, Sebastian; Lucas, José J.; Collinge, John; Tabrizi, Sarah J. (8 December 2015). "Prion-mediated neurodegeneration is associated with early impairment of the ubiquitin–proteasome system". Acta Neuropathologica. 131 (3): 411–425. doi:10.1007/s00401-015-1508-y. PMC4752964. PMID 26646779.
^Mohammadi, Dara (July 2015). "Fast-forwarding treatment for neurodegenerative disorders". The Lancet Neurology. 14 (7): 687–688. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(15)00110-6. PMID 26067120.
^Deriziotis, Pelagia; André, Ralph; Smith, David M; Goold, Rob; Kinghorn, Kerri J; Kristiansen, Mark; Nathan, James A; Rosenzweig, Rina; Krutauz, Dasha; Glickman, Michael H; Collinge, John (8 July 2011). "Misfolded PrP impairs the UPS by interaction with the 20S proteasome and inhibition of substrate entry". The EMBO Journal. 30 (15): 3065–3077. doi:10.1038/emboj.2011.224. ISSN 0261-4189. PMC3160194. PMID 21743439.
^Kristiansen, Mark; Deriziotis, Pelagia; Dimcheff, Derek E.; Jackson, Graham S.; Ovaa, Huib; Naumann, Heike; Clarke, Anthony R.; van Leeuwen, Fijs W.B.; Menéndez-Benito, Victoria; Dantuma, Nico P.; Portis, John L. (April 2007). "Disease-Associated Prion Protein Oligomers Inhibit the 26S Proteasome". Molecular Cell. 26 (2): 175–188. doi:10.1016/j.molcel.2007.04.001. hdl:11858/00-001M-0000-0012-2650-5. PMID 17466621.
^Kristiansen, Mark; Messenger, Marcus J.; Klöhn, Peter-Christian; Brandner, Sebastian; Wadsworth, Jonathan D. F.; Collinge, John; Tabrizi, Sarah J. (18 November 2005). "Disease-related Prion Protein Forms Aggresomes in Neuronal Cells Leading to Caspase Activation and Apoptosis". Journal of Biological Chemistry. 280 (46): 38851–38861. doi:10.1074/jbc.M506600200. ISSN 0021-9258. PMID 16157591.
^Björkqvist, Maria; Wild, Edward J; Thiele, Jenny; Silvestroni, Aurelio; Andre, Ralph; Lahiri, Nayana; Raibon, Elsa; Lee, Richard V; Benn, Caroline L; Soulet, Denis; Magnusson, Anna; Woodman, Ben; Landles, Christian; Pouladi, Mahmoud A; Hayden, Michael R; Khalili-Shirazi, Azadeh; Lowdell, Mark W; Brundin, Patrik; Bates, Gillian P; Leavitt, Blair R; Möller, Thomas; Tabrizi, Sarah J (2008). "A novel pathogenic pathway of immune activation detectable before clinical onset in Huntington's disease". The Journal of Experimental Medicine. 205 (8): 1869–77. doi:10.1084/jem.20080178. PMC2525598. PMID 18625748.
^Goold, Robert; Hamilton, Joseph; Menneteau, Thomas; Flower, Michael; Bunting, Emma L.; Aldous, Sarah G.; Porro, Antonio; Vicente, José R.; Allen, Nicholas D.; Wilkinson, Hilary; Bates, Gillian P.; Sartori, Alessandro A.; Thalassinos, Konstantinos; Balmus, Gabriel; Tabrizi, Sarah J. (August 2021). "FAN1 controls mismatch repair complex assembly via MLH1 retention to stabilize CAG repeat expansion in Huntington's disease". Cell Reports. 36 (9): 109649. doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109649. PMC8424649. PMID 34469738.
^Tabrizi, Sarah J.; Flower, Michael D.; Ross, Christopher A.; Wild, Edward J. (October 2020). "Huntington disease: new insights into molecular pathogenesis and therapeutic opportunities". Nature Reviews Neurology. 16 (10): 529–546. doi:10.1038/s41582-020-0389-4. ISSN 1759-4758. PMID 32796930. S2CID 221129777.
^Tabrizi, Sarah (May 2016). "The Human Revolution". zeitgeistminds.com.
^Gallagher, James (11 December 2017). "Huntington's breakthrough may stop disease". bbc.co.uk.
^Devlin, Hannah (11 December 2017). "Excitement as trial shows Huntington's drug could slow progress of disease". guardian.com.
^Drew, Liam (2018). "How the gene behind Huntington's disease could be neutralized". Nature. 557 (7707): S39–S41. Bibcode:2018Natur.557S..39D. doi:10.1038/d41586-018-05176-z. PMID 29844556. S2CID 256768090.
^Tabrizi, Sarah J.; Leavitt, Blair R.; Landwehrmeyer, G. Bernhard; Wild, Edward J.; Saft, Carsten; Barker, Roger A.; Blair, Nick F.; Craufurd, David; Priller, Josef (6 May 2019). "Targeting Huntingtin Expression in Patients with Huntington's Disease" (PDF). New England Journal of Medicine. 380 (24): 2307–2316. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1900907. ISSN 0028-4793. PMID 31059641.
^"Full Results from Huntingtin Lowering Antisense Oligonucleotides Trial now published". UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. 7 May 2019.
^Leavitt, Blair R.; Tabrizi, Sarah J. (27 March 2020). "Antisense oligonucleotides for neurodegeneration". Science. 367 (6485): 1428–1429. Bibcode:2020Sci...367.1428L. doi:10.1126/science.aba4624. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 32217715. S2CID 214671177.
^Tabrizi, Sarah J; Estevez-Fraga, Carlos; van Roon-Mom, Willeke M C; Flower, Michael D; Scahill, Rachael I; Wild, Edward J; Muñoz-Sanjuan, Ignacio; Sampaio, Cristina; Rosser, Anne E; Leavitt, Blair R (July 2022). "Potential disease-modifying therapies for Huntington's disease: lessons learned and future opportunities". The Lancet Neurology. 21 (7): 645–658. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(22)00121-1. PMC7613206. PMID 35716694.
^ abScahill, Rachael I; Zeun, Paul; Osborne-Crowley, Katherine; Johnson, Eileanoir B; Gregory, Sarah; Parker, Christopher; Lowe, Jessica; Nair, Akshay; O'Callaghan, Claire; Langley, Christelle; Papoutsi, Marina (June 2020). "Biological and clinical characteristics of gene carriers far from predicted onset in the Huntington's disease Young Adult Study (HD-YAS): a cross-sectional analysis". The Lancet Neurology. 19 (6): 502–512. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(20)30143-5. PMC7254065. PMID 32470422.
^"Study provides 'vital insights' into best time to treat Huntington's disease". ITV News. 26 May 2020. Retrieved 30 November 2020.
^Tabrizi, Sarah J.; Schobel, Scott; Gantman, Emily C.; Mansbach, Alexandra; Borowsky, Beth; Konstantinova, Pavlina; Mestre, Tiago A.; Panagoulias, Jennifer; Ross, Christopher A.; Zauderer, Maurice; Mullin, Ariana P.; Romero, Klaus; Sivakumaran, Sudhir; Turner, Emily C.; Long, Jeffrey D. (July 2022). "A biological classification of Huntington's disease: the Integrated Staging System". The Lancet. Neurology. 21 (7): 632–644. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(22)00120-X. ISSN 1474-4465. PMID 35716693. S2CID 249682267.
^Burton, Adrian (2018). "Sarah Tabrizi: Timed to perfection". The Lancet Neurology. 17 (2): 117. doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(17)30303-4. PMID 28916420.
^"Sarah J Tabrizi - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.co.uk.
^UCL (5 June 2023). "Professor Sarah Tabrizi receives the 2023 Arvid Carlsson Award". UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Retrieved 5 June 2023.
^"MRC announces Millennium Medal winners and Impact Prize finalists". www.ukri.org. 8 December 2022. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
^UCL (28 June 2022). "Professor Sarah Tabrizi receives 2022 Osler Medal and HDSA 2022 Research Award". UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
^"Programme and Speakers - AoPGBI". Retrieved 24 June 2022.
^UCL (5 November 2019). "Co-Heads of Department awarded Alexander Morison medal in successive years". UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
^UCL (31 October 2019). "Professor Sarah Tabrizi receives Yahr award at World Congress of Neurology 2019". UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
^"Professor Sarah Tabrizi, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, receives the 2018 Cotzias Award". UCL News. 16 November 2018.
^Tabrizi, Sarah (19 October 2018). "The NHS at 70 years". ucl.ac.uk.