Dr Sarah Gordon was awarded her PhD from the University of Newcastle in 2009. She undertook postdoctoral studies at the University of Edinburgh in the lab of Prof Mike Cousin, where she defined the function of the integral synaptic vesicle (SV) protein synaptophysin. She went on to determine the pathological roles of synaptophysin, and another key SV protein, synaptotagmin, in intellectual disability.

Dr Gordon returned to Australia in 2015 to join the Neurodegeneration group at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, where her work focusses on determining how dysfunction in presynaptic proteins (including alpha synuclein) contributes to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental conditions.