Hi, I'm Sophie Zebell
I'm fascinated by the the biological influence of interactions at different scales. My doctoral work, advised by Dr. Xinnian Dong at Duke University, considered organismal interactions, employing the model organisms Arabidopsis thaliana and Pseudomonas syringae to understand molecular regulation of plant programmed cell death in response to biotrophic pathogens. As a postdoc at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, I studied genetic and molecular interactions between transcription factors in a network regulating tomato inflorescence development.
Recently I’ve taken my interest in genotype-by-environment interactions on the road with a year of Peace Corps Response service in Jamaica, assisting with climate-smart agriculture interventions at the Jamaica Deaf Village and Caribbean Christian Center for the Deaf.