Hi, I'm Sophie Zebell
I'm fascinated by interactions between organisms of different kingdoms. The stationary lifestyle of plants has forced them to evolve creative solutions to their interactions with other organisms, including pathogens. My doctoral work, advised by Dr. Xinnian Dong at Duke University, is on the molecular regulation of one of these creative solutions; the highly conserved programmed cell death response of plant cells to biotrophic pathogens. I investigate programmed cell death using a variety of plants and pathogens, including the model organisms Arabidopsis thaliana and Pseudomonas syringae.
Prior to my work in the Dong lab, I conducted undergraduate research on pattern-triggered immunity in Arabidopsis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the lab of Dr. Andrew Bent. I also worked with Dr. David Hyten on large-scale SNP genotyping and QTL mapping projects in the USDA ARS Soybean Genomics and Improvement lab in Beltsville, Maryland.