Oakland University student has traveled a long road
After moving to U.S. in 2013, she’s become a research standout
Professor Adam Avery knows all about the star growing in his research lab at Oakland University, being he’s the one who discovered her.
“I recruited Sarah because I knew she was going to be an exceptional researcher,” Avery said of Sarah Denha, an OU doctoral student from Clinton Township.
“She’s very driven,” Avery added. “You get that sense about her immediately and that’s very important in research because things don’t always go as expected. “
He also knows her story of resilience and how she convinced her parents to leave Iraq and build a new life in America.
“It’s very impressive,” Avery said.
Denha and her family immigrated to the United States from Iraq in 2013, a few weeks before earning her high school diploma. Since she was 18 when they arrived in California she was too old to finish high school there. So, she spent the first year in her new country honing her English and earning her GED. Being she was the only one in her family to grasp the language quickly she also shouldered the burden of finding her family a home and getting them settled. After moving to Michigan a year later, Denha attended Macomb Community College and then transferred to OU, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry.
She always believed she would become a doctor.
In Iraq, any student who earns the kind of grades that she achieved usually attends medical school. She also loved science and wanted to do something that helped people. So, she followed the plan and in 2019, enrolled in OU’s master’s program in chemistry in order to gain entrance into the medical school at the University of Michigan.
Then she donned a lab coat and all of that changed.
Once she started taking courses that had her working in a laboratory Denha discovered a passion for research and the role that it plays in finding treatments for the sick. Her zeal for research and a sudden desire to pursue it further as a graduate student led her to Avery’s lab where she helped research scientists working to create a treatment for spinocerebellar ataxia type 5, a rare disease that causes a degeneration of the spinal cord and cerebellum.
She excelled at the work and, with the support of Avery, transitioned to OU’s Ph.D. biomedical science program the following year.
“I had no research experience (before graduate school), but with Avery’s mentoring and one-to-one interaction, I learned fast,” she said. “I gained so much confidence and within a year I presented my work at the International American Society for Cell Biology Conference. I did virtual conferences during COVID and met others who are interested in my area of research.”
This past summer she completed a course on neuroscience at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), a private international center for research and education in biological and environmental science in Massachusetts. The MBL is affiliated with the University of Chicago and collaborates with numerous other institutions like University of California, Berkley and Yale University. For the past few years it has also been affiliated with more than 50 Nobel Prize winners including Roderick McKinnon.
Only 18 students were chosen for the program.
“I was one of the luckiest,” Denha said, of the five-week neuroscience program. “It was a very eye-opening experience. I wanted to be exposed to another type of environment, a bigger lab, and other people who are passionate about science.”
She experienced all of this and more.
“I got to work with rats,” said the excited young scientist.
“We’re a fruit fly lab here.”
The summer course also gave her an opportunity to gauge her work in comparison to her peers and, aside from needing some work in her statistical analysis of data, she’s right on track. Not only in terms of her research skills but her work in investigating the molecular underpinnings of a neurological disease like spinocerebellar ataxia, which affects motor skills such as balance, coordination and speech.
The disease is vastly understudied and has not known cure, but Denha is doing her part to change that.
“I had never heard of the disease before I joined Dr. Avery’s lab,” Denha said.
“Once I saw other areas of neuroscience, I realized why I love the research I’m currently doing,” she said. “Once we know how neurons connect we need to go to the molecular level to find the source of the problems. Why is the cell not functioning properly? That is the question I want to answer?”
Working with other like-minded scientists also broadened Denha’s network and, as a result, she and a student from another university will be collaborating on a project in the future should she be accepted for the university’s fellowship program.
“Sarah has been a great success story,” said Avery, who launched the research into spinocerebellar ataxia type 5 while doing his postdoctoral. “She’s worked hard and embraced opportunities to grow in her field. I think being accepted to an exclusive, high-caliber program like the MBL course really shows her potential as a scientist. She came back more confident, more driven and with more of an identity as a scientist. ”
Earlier this year, Denha appeared with Avery as a co-author on an article published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, which provides data that other scientists can use in their research of the disease. However, for Denha, what she’s doing is not only about getting a Ph. D or publishing a paper but about giving people hope for a better future.
“I lost my grandmother to breast cancer but before she died she asked me, ‘Why it was happening? What causes it?’ I could never answer her, “Denha said.
Now that she’s a research scientist she is hoping to provide some answers.
“I love the novelty of research,” she said. “I love the challenge of looking at data and trying to figure out what it means and I love knowing that my work has the power to positively impact people’s lives.”