Congratulations Dr Amira!

We are proud to share that Dr Amira Allahham, a valued research team member, has been officially conferred with her PhD. This milestone achievement marks the culmination of years of hard work and commitment to advancing our understanding of the long-term impacts of burn injuries on the brain.

Amira's thesis, conducted under the mentorship of the Foundation's senior research team, explored the brain's transcriptomic, metabolomic, and lipidomic changes following burn injuries. This research also identified a link between these physiological changes and the increased risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Studies like this pave the way for new interventions and therapies to improve long-term outcomes for burn survivors.

Throughout her PhD journey, Amira's commitment to making a difference has been evident. Her research advances scientific knowledge and has real-world implications for the health and well-being of burn patients. To celebrate this milestone, we asked her questions in our "Behind the Researcher" series, which you can read by clicking here. But for now, we wanted to share her vision for the future.

Now that you've completed your thesis, what are your plans moving forward?

I plan on continuing to work in burn injury research on projects related to the brain and mental health. I am currently carrying out projects that investigate the functionality of the brain after burn injuries using MRIs, and I am hoping to do more projects in the future that relate to improving the mental health of burn patients. My cultural and linguistic background also gives me an interesting perspective on research and health systems, so I plan to use that to make interventions and policies more inclusive of culturally and linguistically diverse individuals in health spaces!

As an early-career researcher, what meaningful contributions do you hope to make in the medical field?

I hope that the work I have contributed to can be translated into interventions that would improve the mental health of burn patients. I hope to can also be also be used to develop preventions to decrease the risk of long term neurodegenerative diseases for burn patients.

Congratulations Amira!