Sofiia is a Master’s student in the Biotechnology program at Columbia, doing research into COVID-19 strain mutations for her dissertation, and her interests are immune engineering and vaccine/cancer therapeutics.

Sofiia studied biochemistry at undergraduate studies, where she became interested in learning more about the applications of immunology to study human disease. In her master’s degree at UCL, she applied her knowledge of molecular pathways of disease to research the effect of including toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) adjuvants in mRNA-based lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). During her studies at Columbia, she further refined her immunological knowledge when studying the application of the immune system to develop viable therapeutic targets to cure infectious diseases and cancer in the Immunoengineering with Biomaterials and Nanotechnology class. During her research position at the Mellis Lab, she is excited to apply her skills and knowledge to research and study the role of evolving COVID-19 strain mutations in guiding knowledge into development of novel future therapeutics and vaccines.

Outside of her studies, Sofiia is interested in playing tennis, snowboarding, and traveling.