Mina Kojima

Mina Kojima is an Associate Research Scientist in the Genetics Department at Yale School of Medicine, Yale University. She holds a PhD in Biology from MIT (2018) and an AB in Molecular Biology from Princeton University (2011). Her research focuses on developmental genetics, chromatin reprogramming, and the maternal-to-zygotic transition. She collaborates extensively with the Giraldez Lab and other groups in studying immune mechanisms in cancer and early embryogenesis.

Dr. Kojima’s work spans molecular mechanisms of gene regulation during embryonic development, including studies on zygotic genome activation and transcriptional amplification during meiosis. Her recent studies on tumor-reactive T cells in melanoma patients reveal novel immunosuppressive pathways. She has pioneered methods for isolating germ cells in mice, advancing studies in gametogenesis.

• Awards: Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellowship (2019), NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (2013)
• Lab: Giraldez Lab (Focus: Developmental genetics and RNA biology)

Her research has been published in high-impact journals such as Nature Immunology, Nature Reviews Genetics, and Molecular Cell. Current projects explore synergistic transcription factor networks and the application of genetically encoded affinity reagents (GEARs) to study endogenous protein function in vivo.