Rate My Professor Sara Raudsepp

Sara Raudsepp serves as the Laboratory Manager in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch, and Senior Technical Officer in the Translational Biodiscovery Laboratory of the Christchurch Heart Institute. She began her career in 1987 as a laboratory technician in immunology at Pearson Laboratory and joined the CardioEndocrine Research Group in 1998, which later became the Christchurch Heart Institute. During the 2010-2011 Christchurch earthquakes, she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Science at the University of Otago Christchurch. In her role, Raudsepp manages a team of technicians, oversees laboratory operations compliant with ISO15189 and FDA standards, and maintains the Biorepository and StarLims database system. The laboratory supports assay development for biomarkers including natriuretic peptides, adrenomedullin, angiotensin II, and others, conducting both research and commercial studies for companies such as Roche, Abbott, and ThermoFisher.

Raudsepp's research focuses on developing and validating biomarker assays for cardiovascular diseases, with emphasis on natriuretic peptides like BNP1-32, NT-proBNP, and proBNP, investigating their processing, glycosylation, and obesity-related changes in heart failure patients. She contributed technically to innovative projects, including an assay for macro-proBNP in a complex clinical case and a method to improve troponin testing by identifying interfering blood factors, which won the University of Otago $50,000 Translational Research Grant in 2022 alongside Professor Chris Pemberton and colleagues. Her efforts have enhanced diagnostic accuracy for heart attacks and heart failure in emergency settings. As a co-author on 14 peer-reviewed publications with over 200 citations, notable works include 'Assays Specific for BNP1-32 and NT-proBNP Exhibit a Similar Performance to Two Widely Used Assays in the Diagnosis of Heart Failure' (2022), 'ProBNP glycosylation of threonine 71 is increased with obesity in patients with heart failure' (2020), 'Development of a BNP1-32 Immunoassay That Does Not Cross-React with proBNP' (2017), 'Generation and characterization of a mouse model of the metabolic syndrome: Apolipoprotein E and aromatase double knockout mice' (2011), and 'Insulin-like Growth Factor Binding Protein-3 (IGFBP-3): a biomarker of coronary artery disease (CAD) induced myocardial ischemia' (2025). Her contributions support translational research bridging preclinical models and clinical applications in cardiology.