Sheena McGowan was formally trained in microbiology, completing her PhD in 2004. During her PhD she studied the structure and function of a toxin regulator from the causative agent of gas gangrene, developing what would become a long-standing interest in structure and function of proteins. During her post-doctoral work she was trained in protein crystallography and biophysics and she now applies these skills in microbiology and structural biology to investigate novel methods for microbial disease control.

The McGowan laboratory is interested in characterising novel molecular drug targets. The lab has a strong research focus in the design of novel anti-malarial drugs as well as other parasitic and bacterial diseases. Primarily we are a structural biology laboratory using techniques in X-ray crystallography, biochemistry and biophysics to analyse our proteins of interest. We use this mechanistic information to design inhibitors or analogues with potential applications in human medicine.