Hi, I’m Anna-Sophia! I’m a fourth-year student in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MD-PhD) at Harvard Medical School and MIT. I’m currently working in the Schmidt Lab, at the beginning of my PhD in Chemical Biology. In 2020, I graduated from Yale University with a B.S./M.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and a B.A. in English. I am also an artist, photographer, and writer (of questionable quality). Samples of my work can be found on other pages of this website!

My major research interest is using biological solutions to improve human health both on and off of the planet. My lab experience includes microgravity technique validation, simple diagnostics, transmembrane protein design and function, virology, personalized medicine, and in-flight resource capture. I’m convinced that the most beautiful parts of human space exploration are the boundaries it inspires us to push here, on Earth.

I also believe that terrestrial solutions to endemic and pandemic pathogens can inform healthcare for long-duration spaceflight; in turn, prevention, detection, and treatment for infectious diseases inadvertently carried to space may inform our approaches to pathogen control in low-resource settings globally. I hope to pursue a career where my familiarity with both the research being done off of the planet and the needs of patients on it ensure that the advances in human health made off the Earth are brought back for the Earth, too.

Additionally, as an undergraduate, I studied theories of post-colonialism, de-coloniality, and trauma. I am particularly interested in how science communication in high-income countries suppresses the voices of and vilifies the communities most acutely suffering the legacies of medical colonialism: poorly-studied disease and underdeveloped healthcare systems. While I no longer formally study the academic framework of (post)colonialism, I will work for global justice and the deconstruction of colonial legacies throughout my career as a physician-scientist. I hope this goal manifests as efforts, globally, to support local projects and healthcare providers as they attempt to meet the needs of their communities.

Ultimately, I am driven by both a love for science and the fundamental belief that quality healthcare is an indisputable human right, and it is our job as (future) healthcare providers to work towards seeing that right realized. For me, for now, that work is developing medical solutions for low-resource environments: on Mars, internationally, and even just down the street.