Sgaier was born in 1975 in Tripoli, Libya to a Libyan father and Turkish mother. Sgaier studied molecular biology and genetics at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, where she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in 2005, ranking first of her class. Sgaier later obtained her Masters in Art in neuroscience from Brown University in 1999 and Masters in Science and Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in cellular and molecular biology (Developmental Genetics) in 2005 from New York University. She conducted her postdoctoral training in human genomics in the lab of Dr. Christopher A. Walsh at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School.
Sema is the recipient of New York University, Brown University fellowships and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center fellowships.[citation needed]
Sgaier was the first to fine tune and apply the technique of Genetic Inducible Fate Mapping (GIFM)[3] to understand how the complex 3D cerebellum develops from early-undifferentiated neuronal cells of the anterior hindbrain.[4] With Tim Yu and colleagues, she discovered that mutations in the gene WDR62 causes microcephaly.[5]
At the Center for Global Health Research, Sgaier designed and developed the Sample Registration Health Check-Up Survey to study the underlying risk factors of various diseases in India. She has published on the epidemiology of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
From 2008, Sema was a Program Officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She led a portfolio on voluntary medical male circumcision for HIV prevention across eastern and southern Africa. As part of BMGF’s India Country Office, Sema led the scale-up of the foundation’s HIV prevention program (Avahan) in several states, managed its transition to the government of India, and developed data platforms for decision-making. She worked closely with the Indian National AIDS Control Program to assist in the design of their program and strengthen their analytic efforts.[6]
Atit, Radhika; Sgaier, Sema K.; Mohamed, Othman A.; Taketo, Makoto M.; Dufort, Daniel; Joyner, Alexandra L.; Niswander, Lee; Conlon, Ronald A. (2006). "Β-catenin activation is necessary and sufficient to specify the dorsal dermal fate in the mouse". Developmental Biology. 296 (1): 164–76. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2006.04.449. PMID16730693.
Sgaier, S. K.; Mony, P.; Jayakumar, S.; McLaughlin, C.; Arora, P.; Kumar, R.; Bhatia, P.; Jha, P. (2010). "Prevalence and correlates of Herpes Simplex Virus-2 and syphilis infections in the general population in India". Sexually Transmitted Infections. 87 (2): 94–100. doi:10.1136/sti.2010.043687. PMID21059842. S2CID8556425.
Arora, P.; Nagelkerke, N.; Sgaier, S. K.; Kumar, R.; Dhingra, N.; Jha, P. (2011). "HIV, HSV-2 and syphilis among married couples in India: Patterns of discordance and concordance". Sexually Transmitted Infections. 87 (6): 516–20. doi:10.1136/sextrans-2011-050203. PMID21865404. S2CID13820421.
"The Concept of Fate Through the Lens of Genetics" with F. Berenshteyn, A. L. Joyner, S. Miller, C. Song, and M. P. Villanueva in Responsive Architectures: Subtle Technologies. Philip Beesley, Sachiko Hirosue, Jim Ruxton, Camile Turner, and Marion Tränkle, ed. Cambridge: Riverside Architectural Press, 2006 pp. 26–29. ISBN0978097807