Seven years ago, Amna Abdullah started her academic journey as a recipient of the KAUST Gifted Student Program (KGSP) scholarship, which allowed her to peruse her undergraduate studies at the George Washington University (GW), the United States, in which she graduated magna cum laude with Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering with a minor in electrical engineering. Amna leveraged her time in the US to undergo different research experiences and learning opportunities. The summer of her freshman year, she joined the evolutionary biology department as a research assistant to investigate the effect of floral traits and resources on bee-pathogen dynamics. The summer after that, Amna had the opportunity of working at the Institute for Nanobiotechnology at Johns Hopkins University to study the effect of YAP/TAZ synthesis on regulating cell volume. At KAUST, and prior to joining the SSB group, she was working at the vibrational imaging lab on investigating the lipid profile of cancer stem cells to assess the feasibility of using lipid droplets as a biomarker for detection and targeting.