Ilham Abbasi: Celebrating Our 2023 MedGen OGS Winner

Ilham Abbasi, a current second-year student in the Medical Genomics program, is the second student in the program’s history to win an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS). Demonstrating the high caliber of MedGen students, Ilham won over the award committee by outlining her research contributions and passion for genomics.

Ilham started with the MedGen program in the fall of 2022 after completing her BSc in Biochemistry with an honour’s thesis from York University. Through her research work, Ilham gained experience in both wet-lab work and bioinformatics, however she realized that she did not have a passion for the wet-lab aspects. Having “always been interested in genetics”, she searched for career options in genetics, at one time considering genetic counselling before discovering the Medical Genomics Program. The program checked many boxes Ilham was looking for from graduate school, most prominently “how many doors it can open up for [students]”. Ilham was drawn to the exploration of many different avenues in the field of genomics, which no other program could provide. Over the last year, Ilham has been able to better explore her interests in genetic counselling and bioinformatics, while also exploring new interests in variant interpretation, stating “this program was really the perfect mix of all of that.”

The Ontario Graduate Scholarship is a competitive, merit-based scholarship available to master’s and doctoral-level students across Ontario, rewarding excellence in graduate studies and research. Due to the OGS application for the University of Toronto emphasizing research contributions, it can be more difficult for students in professional programs to be awarded - but not impossible, as demonstrated by Ilham’s recent success, and the MedGen Class of 2023 Valedictorian, Sornnujah Kathirgamanathan’s win last year (you can read more about Sornnujah’s journey here).

A huge accomplishment, winning the OGS award “felt surreal and exciting” for Ilham. When discussing her application’s success, Ilham credits a few key elements that made her stand out to the award committee. Firstly, Ilham’s research contributions as an undergraduate student were significant: the work from her honour’s thesis, which looked at “the effects of a signaling molecule on brain development and it's connection to autism”, resulted in two conference poster presentations; and she also volunteered at a start-up where she contributed to a pre-print released on “mental health interventions for people with PTSD”.

Beyond her research experiences, Ilham primarily credits her demonstrated passion for genomics as a reason she stood out as an OGS applicant. Ilham explains “hav[ing] a clear direction of how I want to impact the field …[and] use my practicum placement to achieve my goal” was important to demonstrate to the award committee through her plan of study. She also outlined her passion for ethnic representation in genomics. As a South Asian woman, Ilham feels very connected to this issue, wanting to “making sure that [South Asians] are represented in the field of genomics itself” whether that is “being a South Asian working in genomics” herself or assuring more research includes South Asian participants. By drawing on her previous experiences, Ilham’s application outlined how she would actively work with her practicum placement and throughout her future career to assess strategies for interacting with minority groups and advocate for minority representation in genomic studies. Not only did this highlight Ilham’s passion, but it also demonstrated her capacity for leadership and potential to impact the field at large. Remarking on her win, she emphasized that “if you have a passion and you can back it up with your professional experiences, then that will shine through in your application.”

Ilham epitomizes the high-quality students within the Medical Genomics program, and we couldn’t be prouder to have her in the program. With practicum right around the corner, we are excited to see what Ilham chooses for her practicum and know her future is very bright.