Hi, I’m Bayan! I was born and raised in Damascus, Syria. I started out with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences at Damascus University, where my graduation project on isolating and transforming umbilical cord stem cells first sparked my love for stem cell biology. After that, I moved to Hungary for my MSc and PhD at the University of Szeged and the HUN-REN Biological Research Centre. There, I dove into Drosophila genetics and developmental biology. My PhD work in Dr. Viktor Honti’s lab focused on how the homologue of the human tumor suppressor HECA regulates blood stem cell maintenance and fate decisions, and I also helped develop a new method for culturing fly blood cells. Now, as a postdoc in the Goins lab at Stanford, I study how blood stem cells decide whether to self-renew or differentiate, with a special focus on asymmetric cell division. Outside the lab, I love road-tripping around California and the US, and cooking Syrian dishes (usually with my own twist).