Mount Sinai Microbiologist Selected as Revson Senior Fellow in Biomedical Science
Jessica Sook Yuin Ho, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has been selected as a Charles H. Revson Senior Fellow in Biomedical Science by the Charles H. Revson Foundation.
Jessica Sook Yuin Ho, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has been selected as a Charles H. Revson Senior Fellow in Biomedical Science by the Charles H. Revson Foundation. The two-year fellowship is awarded annually to eight exceptionally talented New York City scientists entering their third or fourth year of postdoctoral research.
Intended to help address the need for funding during the critical third and fourth years of training when postdoctoral fellows are finishing their initial projects and establishing themselves as independent researchers, the fellowship attracts applications from dozens of highly qualified candidates from 13 top medical and research institutions. Only a select few are chosen.
Dr. Sook Yuin Ho works in the Marazzi Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology at Icahn Mount Sinai. Her research focuses on a novel viral protein and its role in pathogenesis. She wrote her fellowship application based on a paper she published in Cell in 2020, which focused on the presence of human-chimeric proteins/genes that are generated during influenza A infection. Essentially, she and her colleagues assert that these proteins are not generated by chance during infection, but are actually a means for the virus to explore its genetic potential to encode new genes. Additionally, they posit that these proteins could be suitable targets for future therapeutic or vaccine design for influenza A virus. Dr. Sook Yuin Ho is interested in further characterizing the functions and roles of these proteins in infected cells.
“Most of our high-risk projects depend on the support of private foundations that understand the need to promote transformative discoveries,” said Ivan Marazzi, PhD, Associate Professor of Microbiology at Icahn Mount Sinai. “We are grateful to the Revson Foundation for their recognition of our work and for their support of Dr. Sook Yuin Ho’s important scientific endeavors.”
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.
As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.
Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.