Sarah Spiegel received her bachelor of science degree in chemistry and biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1974. She did graduate work in biochemistry under Professor Meir Wilchek at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, where she earned her PhD in biochemistry in 1983, before relocating to the United States.
Spiegel did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Membrane Biochemistry Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, from 1984 to 1986. She then moved to Georgetown University School of Medicine to serve as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from 1987 to 1992, and Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from 1992 to 1996. This was followed by a full professorship in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University Medical School from 1996 to 2001.
Spiegel is credited with the discovery of the sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) molecule in the mid-1990s. This molecule has been identified as a signaler in the spread of cancer, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease. In 2013 Spiegel and Santiago Lima, PhD, reported in the journal Structure on their discovery of the atomic structure of the enzyme sphingosine kinase 1, which produces the S1P molecule.
Since 2000, she has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Glycoconjugate Journal, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, and Signal Transduction.
Spiegel's research has been continually funded for a period of nearly 20 years by grants from the National Institutes of Health. In 2003 she was awarded the National Institutes of Health MERIT Award of nearly $2.1 million for further research on S1P.
