Sophia Yancopoulos

RESEARCH | CV | 

• A physicist moving towards biology.
  
• I worked on the role of internal water in transmembrane proteins with Dr. Mihaly Mezei and Dr. Roman Osman  at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 
• At U Penn's Center of Bioinformatics I worked on signal peptides with Dr. Artemis Hatzigeorgiou.

WHERE I WORK

The New York Genome Center (NYGC) is an independent research organization based on the notion that scientific discovery in genomic science will increase by using a multi- institutional and multi-disciplinary approach.

NYGC's expertise is in whole genome sequencing, genomic analysis, computational biology, and the discovery of novel biomedical models.

Experimental Immunology

Nicholas Chiorazz, MD leads an internationally recognized research program on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common Western adult leukemia, with almost 10,000 new cases in 2006 in the US alone. A goal of the research is to define antigens recognized by CLL cells. This will help scientists understand causes of the disease and to develop treatments.

RESEARCH

A while back, I taught a course in bioinformatics with an associated lecture series which led to my developing an interest in genome evolution.

I then worked on a novel model of genome rearrangements in evolution. In Dr. Chiorazzi's lab, I explored the connections between evolution, cancer and the adaptive immune system including the  implications for what happens when our immune systems go awry, possibly leading to leukemia.