Meet our Early Career Scientist Grant Winner Shaymaa Bahnassy
We are pleased to introduce the latest winner of our Early Career Scientist Grant! Shaymaa Bahnassy is the recipient of a $500 grant awarded monthly to a PhD or postdoc life scientist to help support their career.
Shaymaa is an international postdoctoral researcher working at Georgetown University, USA in Rebecca Riggins’s lab. She plans to use the grant to help with travel costs to AACR 2022 where she is presenting her work on characterizing resistance to targeted therapies in double-positive breast cancer.
When we asked how she felt about receiving the grant, she said:
I’m delighted and thankful to Hello Bio for supporting me as well as other scientists on our career journeys, especially during these challenging times. I’m using this award to represent our work at AACR 2022. Beyond the monetary support, to me the award is also a way of acknowledging my efforts in understanding drug resistance in breast cancers. Shaymaa Bahnassy, Georgetown University, USA, Hello Bio Early Career Scientist Grant winner
Congratulations Shaymaa! First, can you tell us a bit more about what you're working on at the moment?
I’m working on characterizing resistance to targeted therapies and finding alternative therapeutic strategies for atypical, estrogen receptor-driven breast cancers, namely, double-positive (ER+/HER2+) and lobular breast cancers.
What is it about your field of research that gets you most excited?
Discoveries in delineating mechanisms of drug resistance and finding alternative therapeutic strategies in the cancer and breast cancer fields excite me. What excites me the most is the recent increased awareness and collaborative efforts of bringing researchers, clinicians, and patient advocates to closely work together to battle cancer back.
Which scientists working today do you most admire, and why?
All scientists that are humbly driven by curiosity and passion for science, but I mostly admire those putting effort into giving back to their communities.
What do you think are the biggest challenges currently facing life scientists and their work?
Unfortunately, so many. Conducting scientific research is becoming harder. Countries do not invest enough in scientific research, thus limited resources, funding, and opportunities for scientists. Restricting eligibility to apply for grants due to citizenship requirements creates unequal opportunities for many graduate students and early career scientists compared to their peers. Also, scientists are generally not well-paid and are not equally paid; salaries are better in industry than academia.
And finally… what’s your favourite science quote?
“Experimentation is the greatest science.”
________________________________
Thank you so much Shaymaa! We wish you all the best with your presentation at AACR 2022.
Connect with Shaymaa:
- Twitter: @sbahnassy17
- LinkedIn: Shaymaa Bahnassy
________________________________
If you enjoyed this article, why not check out the other resources available on our blog. We are passionate about supporting life scientists including early career life scientists and PhD students - with really low-priced reagents and biochemicals, early career scientist grants, and resources to help with both personal and professional development. We know how tough it is - so we hope you find these helpful!
More General Support for Life Scientists
For advice on writing papers, dissertations, presenting at conferences, wellbeing, PhD support, networking and lots more, we have a huge range of articles to help - just click below:
Save up to 50% on our high purity reagents...
When you get to the stage of planning your experiments, don't forget that we offer a range of low-cost, high-purity agonists, antagonists, inhibitors, activators, antibodies and fluorescent tools (yes - they really are around half the price of other suppliers!) You can use our Quick Multi-Search Tool to search for lots of products in one go, and the range includes:
- Enzyme inhibitors and activators
- Chemogenetic ligands
- Ion channel modulators
- GPCR & ionotropic receptor ligands
- Cell biology reagents & biochemicals
Technical resources
Try our Molarity Calculator: a quick and easy way to calculate the mass, volume or concentration required for making a solution.
Try our Dilution Calculator: an easy way to work out how to dilute stock solutions of known concentrations
And finally, don't forget to check back in with our blog regularly for our latest articles. If there’s something you’d love to contribute to the community, whether that’s an interview or article, drop us a line at hello@hellobio.com
---
