Saie is a Technical Advisor with a background in molecular biology. She has experience in the biotechnology industry and with academic research institutions and extensive capabilities in utilizing biological models and bioinformatics tools in the oncology space. Saie also has experience in the areas of cloning and gene editing tools, functional assays, cell culture and in vivo model systems, and data visualization.

Prior to joining Mintz, Saie was a postdoctoral research fellow at a renowned cancer treatment and research center in Boston, where she conducted investigations related to cell-cycle checkpoint deficiencies in endometrial cancers. She also designed shRNA or CRISPR/Cas9-dependent knockdown and rescue models as well as targeted protein degrader (TPD) strategies to enable a deeper mechanistic understanding of disease-relevant proteins.

Along with a PhD in Pathology, Saie earned graduate certificates in Translational Sciences and Applied Statistics. During her graduate studies, she conducted research on the roles of the endoplasmic reticulum protein IRE1α, discovering novel functional and mechanistic roles of mutations during skin carcinogenesis. Saie also investigated the role of TGFβ1 in modulating HRAS-induced ER stress response pathways and gained experience in 3D cell culture, gene editing, confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, NGS, and RNA-Seq analysis.

Prior to graduate school, Saie worked as a research associate focused on cancer biology and endocrinology at a Massachusetts-based biopharma company, where she developed in vitro models and assays to investigate candidate biomarkers for the company’s clinical assets.