Majd passed her qual!

This summer marked an important moment in my academic journey as I successfully passed my PhD qualifying exam and I am now a Pharmacology PhD candidate! It has been an incredible experience filled with growth, learning and support from my mentors and peers in the lab.

My proposal aims to validate a novel target for the inhibition of self-renewal of Leukemia initiating cells in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Those cells are found to be resistant to conventional chemotherapy agents and responsible for patients’ relapse and targeting them has the potential to improve treatment outcomes. The qualifying process includes the preparation of a research proposal followed by an oral exam. Preparing for the qualifying exam was a great learning experience, I had the chance to extensively read into the literature and explore exciting directions for my projects and the various experiments I can do to understand my new target. Jessi, my mentors and peers in the lab provided great insights into my proposal and encouraged me to think critically and deeply into its different aspects.

I am very happy to be done with this milestone and looking forward for the exciting science that lies ahead!