Q&A with Yasmin Said: Pathobiology Research, Representation in STEM, & more 🧬

So hi! My name is Yasmin Said (she/her). I'm currently in my third year of undergraduate studies, and I'm studying at the University of Toronto. I'm currently majoring in Population Health, and double minoring in Biology and Psychology. So actually I entered University and am still registered as a Life Sciences student, who always had a keen interest in science in its entirety. For me, the idea of biology and just understanding human beings at a more molecular level, and why we are the way we are was something that always striked me at a young age. I find it to be so full circle because I have a picture of myself when I was seven years old, wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope. And I think that definitely predicted that I wanted to do something in health care in general. 

Specifically, I guess my aspirations of what I want to do with my degree and hopefully, once I graduate, and even now, as an undergraduate student, is just wanting to increase the representation of BIPOC especially as a Black Muslim female. I definitely want to work within marginalized communities and kind of look at policies that shape health outcomes in different populations, and also kind of looking at the more broader scope of life, why people get sick, and how we can actually go about helping those individuals and improving health outcomes. By looking at different institutions in different universities as well as different hospitals and analyzing statistical results of what's actually going on in terms of people who are being admitted for certain diseases and kind of looking at what we can do to really help.

Outside of academia, I am a sports athlete, who plays soccer, basketball, and I also swim. I'm also a sports activist who works with different organizations based in the GTA to kind of help catalyze racial equity in sports, specifically amongst Black and Muslim women. I do this by working with grassroots organizations such as Hijabi Ballers, which basically is an organization that celebrates and promotes Muslim women in sports and creating opportunities for them. I have worked with the Toronto Raptors in the past as well as sports brand Nike. So I have this intersectionality of being a sports athlete who is also pursuing health and medicine. In addition, I love writing and performing spoken word poetry. That's something that I've been doing since I was young and got back in touch with when the pandemic first hit. 

Hijabi Ballers Website: hijabiballers.com

Hijabi Ballers Instagram: instagram.com/hijabiballers/

I basically was able to work in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (LMP), at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto in the summer of 2021. This was a paid summer research position that I was basically able to have from early May to mid-August. It was basically the beginning of summer to the end of summer. Overall, it was a really really insightful experience. I was able to actually land this position the summer after my first year of undergraduate studies. So it was really interesting to kind of see some of the information that I only learned in my first year, and putting such skills and translating it to the wet lab while continuously learning from other people in the lab. Most of them were all graduate students, or nearing the end of their undergrad. So it was definitely intimidating at first, considering that I was probably the youngest person there working alongside a masters student or someone who is close to graduating but very fulfilling as I was able to not just learn from them, but have them learn from me. So because I was in the department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology, a lot of the focus of the research that we're doing has to do with the causation of diseases in terms of why diseases stem from a molecular level. Which is something that a lot of people kind of get confused about between Pathobiology and Pathology. So pathobiology essentially is looking at diseases and looking at how basically the cellular structure and different metabolic processes in the body lead to a disease to occur. Rather than pathology, which focuses more so on the diagnosis of that disease. So like you by seeing or not seeing something, this means you have, or you don't have a disease, such as cancer. Or if you see “this” or “that” that means a tumor is benign. As a result, a lot of the work that I had to do was looking and working with cells at a micro level. 

So some of the procedures that I was able to do were split cells, to create viruses, which was very different. Since at first I kind of was thinking “isn’t this something dangerous like shouldn't I not be touching this?” But then I learned how to create viruses, taking the appropriate steps to ensure my safety and the safety of my colleagues. I learned the importance of handling viruses carefully and regularly having meetings with my supervisor to discuss protocol and making sure that we were on the same page. Specifically, we learned and were handling retroviruses. I learned how to create polymerase chain reactions and Bradford Protein assays. This was able to sharpen and strengthen my skills as not just a student but as a researcher as I was able to get that experience straight out of first year was beneficial because I did start undergrad in Covid. Which because of such, everything I had been doing in the lab up until that point was through online simulations. So learning how to pipette initially felt so weird because I was doing everything online versus where there was a shift of doing things in-person. This gave me a new and refreshed perspective as I was also able to contribute to other students' research around me. 

I think one of the biggest things that I definitely think I was proud of doing was learning how to essentially stain cells. This process occurs when you stain cells with a specific antibody that reflects a specific pigment depending on what you are trying to see when you image the cell. For example, if you want to see something in particular, you'll stain it a specific color, so that if you end up imaging this cell, you realize, “okay, I actually saw this in my cell because I stained it red or stained it blue.” So I used to stain cells all the time, and because of my ability to do so with accuracy one of the master students who was working in the lab with me would ask me if I could stay in her own cells as well. This definitely stood out to me because I was just trying to do it for my own research while also helping everybody around me as well, making the whole thing collaborative. So that was definitely a highlight for me during this experience. 

Initially, I was kind of like, “Oh, my God! I'm not as experienced as anybody else.” I was having a lot of those thoughts, but to kind of be in the actual field and doing the work. gave me a lot of confidence and made me realize I can do this. I'm here for a reason, and I'm actually good at what I do. Which was something that I definitely was really proud of, and I would see that equally translate onto my supervisor. During my time at the lab, I worked under the supervision of Dr. Paul A. Hamel. So I worked in his lab, and he was just amazing. From the atmosphere he created, the skills I learned from him and from other supervisors who were working in the same department and on the same floor was amazing. 

So I actually heard of this opportunity from word of mouth! And then I actually also remember hearing about the program at a university fair. What made me take the step towards actually applying and learning more about the program was through my older brother. So my older brother actually goes to UofT as well and is currently doing his Masters in Cell and Systems Biology. And this was something that he heard about, and he relayed the information to me and was like, “Oh, maybe you should check this out and do more research and see if this is something you'd be interested in.” So definitely like him telling me kind of gave me the push to actually go and do my own pursuit of knowledge, seeing if this was right for me, and then actually taking the step to apply. So yeah. 

I guess because I kind of answered some of it in the previous question. I'll try to pivot and say, look at a different angle for this. For me, I definitely would say, a notable highlight was honestly the relationships that I was able to kind of form in the work environment, and just being able to learn from other people and realizing, you know, like this person who's working beside me is on the same boat as I am, and if we're like struggling over the same concept, then being able to come together, and actually help each other out in our free time. This was really important because when you think about research, especially because we were working in a lab a lot of the time your mind thinks that this is a very independent work environment. Everybody assumes that research equals independency. And a lot of the time it is that, don’t get me wrong. But I think what really was amazing about this opportunity was that although we were all doing our own little independent pieces of work, we were all still able to kind of help each other, and collaboratively work and help each other out when we needed it. If we noticed we had time, or even if we didn't, we would make time to actually help each other. I definitely think that was something that really was amazing, because again, it's sometimes beyond and more than just the experience but the connections and bonds you create in that work environment. And like leaving that work environment with someone that you can, you know, connect with in the future and real world. 

And I remember this one girl who was working alongside me. We would sometimes leave work together at the same time. We would have long conversations about just life in general where sometimes what we would talk about would have nothing to do with what we would do in the lab. Obviously it would start off as that, and like kind of summarizing what we did. But then, also, we would just kind of talk as if we were long time friends. And I think that's something that I really loved because it's more than just sometimes you doing the work and you doing the research. But it's also being able to know that, if there's a concept you find confusing, there’s someone that can help grow your understanding of that concept. For example, there would be times where we would learn different techniques, not at the same time. Where one of the summer students would have to learn about doing this one thing, and so she would basically learn it first. And when it would come our turn to learning that specific technique or vice versa, we would kind of be there to help each other and actually show how it's done. Implementing “this is how you do this because we have the experience already doing it.” So it was nice. because we really just taught each other, but also, we're just really understanding, and we're almost like our own, like each other's cheerleaders to some degree. Which was really comforting, making it another highlight of the whole experience.

So working in the department of LMP was my first wet-lab experience. Although I have not personally done anything like that since then, it definitely gave me the confidence to go out of my way, to actually look for more and apply for more opportunities. Which I definitely think is a big step in itself, because a lot of the times like what's stopping you from getting a job or getting a volunteer position, is the intimidation of even applying. The feeling of “maybe I can, or maybe I shouldn't so.” I definitely think that has given me the confidence to go out of my way and network with people who have worked in different labs and hearing their experiences and doing my own personal research. So I definitely think that's great, because, although now I currently am not working in a specific research institution or at a hospital that is something that I definitely want to experience again, as I know that I have a lot to contribute from my own, academic background, but also my own work experience that can help further research in healthcare.

Yasmin’s Feature on UofT LMP Website, “Seeing yourself in STEM: attracting Black talent”: lmp.utoronto.ca/news/seeing-yourself-stem-attracting-black-talent 

Yasmin Said’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yasmin-said-87646b1b8/ 

Yasmin Said’s Instagram: instagram.com/yas.saidd/

LMP Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program (SURE) Website: lmp.utoronto.ca/lmp-summer-undergraduate-research-experience-program-sure (applications for the program are open until May 8, 2023!)

To take that step. I know it sounds very cliche, especially being a marginalized woman, I believe, sometimes taking that step into the healthcare field can be even scarier. It was definitely something that's a little bit more intimidating for us especially, and for me it was. 

But honestly, if you have the passion, don't let anybody strip that away from you and go for it because you have a lot to contribute, and until you do, you honestly will not see your potential, until you're in that space. Everybody has something different to contribute, even if you're all working in the same lab. And even if you're doing the same research honestly, you all have different things that you can contribute that makes your experience different, and also makes the research and the work that you're doing that much more significant. So I honestly would say, don't, be afraid it's not as intimidating as you might think. It is intimidating at the beginning. I can't even lie, but the confidence you gain throughout your experience, and the skills that you learn, and the connections that you build makes everything worth it. So I definitely would say, Yeah, just go for it.