Fellows
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Raphaella ZanuttiniLinguisticsRaffaella Zanuttini’s interest in linguistics arises from the fact that it studies a component of human nature with methods that approach scientific rigor. She feels privileged to study an aspect of the human mind that is still largely mysterious, the knowledge of language, and enjoy the challenge of trying to model it using a theoretical framework that is still developing, the generative framework. |
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Heidi ZapataInfectious DiseaseMy interest in microbes started in college when I did a research project on Trypanosomes, the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness. I was struck with how the membrane of the parasite changed its surface antigens to circumvent the host immune response. My interest in the host microbe relationship continued during my MD/Ph.D., during which my thesis work focused on Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV), the cause of chicken pox and shingles. We demonstrated that the VZV virus had co-evolved to become highly dependent on the cellular signaling proteins JNK and ERK, which was beautifully illustrated when we found that the virus had hijacked these cellular proteins and had incorporated them into the virion. My research interests inspired my choice to pursue Infectious Diseases as a specialty. During my Infectious Disease fellowship at Yale, my clinical experiences repeatedly demonstrated that different human hosts respond very diferrently to infection. The same microbe could produce a mild disease in one person, and an overwhelming sepsis in an another. I especially noted that both older adults and HIV-infected individuals had particularly different responses. With each patient I saw, the important role the host response plays in infection was underscored. Overall, my clinical experiences have solidified the importance of the host-microbe relationship, and have pushed me to further understand the host innate immune response through my research. Email Heidi Zapata |
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Shu Yi Zhou-TrzcinskiGlobal Strategy and International AffairsShu Yi Zhou is the Cross-Disciplinary Program Manager at Yale Young Global Scholars. Her love for STEM and the Social Sciences is rooted in her research at Columbia University. Her research focused on understanding why certain societies and cultures promoted the practice of skin bleaching, the history of skin color and societal status, and investigating the molecular and physiological effects of the bleaching agent, hydroquinone. Prior to Yale, Shu Yi worked at Minds Matter, a national college access non-profit supporting high-achieving low-income students. There, she spearheaded a nation-wide summer programs initiative and sent over 600 students to pre-collegiate summer programs across the globe annually. Shu Yi’s a proud first-generation low-income student who graduated from the University at Albany with a B.S. in Human Biology and received her Ed.M. in Higher Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She’s passionate about social justice, empowering youth activists, and supporting students with marginalized identities to thrive in higher ed. In her spare time she can be seen crocheting, dreaming about opening an animal sanctuary, or going on walks with her rescue pup from Azerbijian, Kiko. Email Shu Yi Zhou-Trzcinski |