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Cohort 2022
Dr. Sophie Lindqvist
Uppsala University
Archaeology→Synthetic BiologyLeap 93
Impact summary
Reconstructed three ancestral immune variants with novel pathogen-resistance properties. Collaboration with Pfizer to evaluate therapeutic potential.
Background
Sophie analyzed ancient DNA extracted from Bronze Age burial sites. Her discovery that certain prehistoric populations carried loss-of-function mutations in immune genes — and yet survived epidemics — pointed to something unexpected. A fellowship at the SciLifeLab introduced her to synthetic biology tools that let her reconstruct ancient immune pathways in living cells to study their function.
The leap story
“Ancient DNA is full of mutations we've never seen in living people. Some of those "broken" genes might actually be solutions to problems we haven't faced yet. I wanted to find out which ones.”