Nan Sophia Han

Sophia joined the Baryawno Lab as a PhD student in January 2025, shortly after earning her medical degree from Karolinska Institute. Early in her medical training, she developed a strong interest in preclinical and translational research. She has studied skeletal muscle aging using carbon dating techniques in the lab of Olaf Bergmann, and contributed to a project developing an mRNA-based vaccine against malaria in the lab of Anna Färnert, both at Karolinska Institute. In 2023, Sophia joined the Baryawno Lab for her Master’s thesis, which was conducted at the David Sykes Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. Her project resulted in a characterization of the role of thrombopoietin in hematopoietic stem cell regulation, as well as development of a new mouse model of thrombocytopenia.

Sophia is passionate about a career that integrates clinical practice with scientific research, being particularly inspired by the patient-centered mindset and scientific rigor that define the Baryawno Lab. Her doctoral thesis focuses on uncovering the biological mechanisms driving bone metastatic development and therapy resistance in pediatric and adult cancers, using novel preclinical models.