Soph comes from Colorado Springs where they spent the majority of their upbringing. In 2017, they earned their B.S. in both chemistry and biology from Emory University. Their undergraduate research started on the development of a collagen mimetic using aldehyde-based peptides. Later, they moved to antiviral compound synthesis targeting HIV. During the summer of their senior year, they worked in industry on a lysosome targeting version of PROTACs. It was during this internship that they developed their passion for protein engineering as a greener alternative to traditional synthetic techniques.