Aya Mousa was one of the five finalists for the Future Science Early Career Research
Award 2018. Read her interview to find out about her career, hopes for the future
and advice to other early career researchers.
Please tell us about your career history to date
I obtained a Bachelor of Health Sciences degree (first class Hons) from the University
of Auckland in New Zealand in 2011. I graduated with the highest grade point averages
in both my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, receiving the Senior Scholar Award
(undergraduate BHSc, 2011) and Honours Prize (postgraduate BHSc Hons, 2012). I then
worked as a teaching associate in epidemiology, biostatistics and public health (2013),
before relocating to Australia on a scholarship to pursue a PhD in clinical sciences
exploring the role of vitamin D in cardiometabolic diseases. My PhD was conferred
in April 2018 from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), after which I received
an early career biomedical research fellowship from the National Health and Medical
Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia commencing in 2019. Despite completing my PhD
less than 1 year ago, I have authored more than 30 publications in distinguished journals.
My research experience, coupled with collaborations I have formed with clinical leaders
and experts has allowed me to possess a unique combination of skills across the research
continuum (biomedical, epidemiological, clinical, public health and translation) that
I will utilize and build on in my career moving forward. Currently, I am employed
as an academic research fellow at Monash University where I am supervising PhD and
Honours students and building my independent research team investigating interventions
for the prevention of cardiometabolic diseases.
What made you choose a career in your field?
Cardiometabolic and chronic diseases are major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide
and we are in dire need of simple and cost-effective solutions that can address this
epidemic on a global scale. Vitamin D deficiency is also highly prevalent, affecting
more than 1 billion people worldwide, primarily due to increased sedentary indoor
lifestyles and limited sun exposure due to fear of skin cancer.
I first became interested in health research during my time at the University of Auckland
in New Zealand, where I studied and taught epidemiology, biostatistics, research methods
and public health for 4 years. I then started my PhD in Australia where I conducted
extensive research exploring the role of vitamin D in diabetes, pregnancy and heart
disease. During this time, I became interested in the field of clinical and prevention
research, particularly in relation to simple nutritional interventions for preventing
cardiometabolic diseases. It was during my PhD that I built on previous knowledge
through formal coursework in advanced biostatistics and chronic disease epidemiology.
I also enjoyed gaining practical clinical research skills by conducting a clinical
trial from start to finish, as well as by performing epidemiological studies, large-scale
evidence syntheses and fieldwork and translational activities.
Through this work, I realized for the first time the importance of medical research
and its potential implications for human health. Together, these experiences prompted
my interest in furthering my career in biomedical and clinical research with a focus
on nutrition, metabolism and cardiometabolic diseases.
Describe the main highlights of your career so far
I am truly blessed to have had a number of highlights during my research career thus
far, including:
Writing and publishing my research, including leading and/or being involved in over
30 papers in reputable journals;
Receiving monetary support to be able to test my research questions and hypotheses.
This includes securing over AUD $500,000 in competitive funding including as chief
investigator on two young investigator project grants, an early career networking
project grant and an early mid career research collaborative seed grant;
Being invited to discuss my vitamin D research on a national radio station as well
as having online news articles published about my work in vitamin D and inflammation;
Receiving recognition through a number of awards during my academic career including
the Senior Scholar Award, Honours Prize, Australian Postgraduate Award and 1st Prize
Endocrinology Clinical Research Award, as well as the Premier's Award for Health and
Medical Research (Finalist in the Clinical Research category – only five selected
from across the state of Victoria). After submitting my thesis, I received two highly
competitive postdoctoral fellowships to commence my postdoctoral research;
Attending and presenting my research at multiple conferences including at two leading
international diabetes congresses (American Diabetes Association; International Diabetes
Federation);
I have had the pleasure of teaching undergraduate students and supervising two PhD
students and one Honours student so far, which is probably the greatest highlight
of my career as I enjoy training future generations of researchers.
Describe the most difficult challenge you have faced & how you overcame it
A difficult challenge often experienced by early career researchers (ECRs) is the
transition toward becoming an independent researcher and moving your research beyond
the benchtop such that it can be directly translated to improved patient care.
As an ECR, often it is possible to feel lost as to where your work fits in the bigger
picture and how you can truly make a difference to the health of patients and communities
in a real-world setting. I experienced this challenge as I moved from being a PhD
student to becoming an independent ECR and it forced me to think beyond ‘track-records’
and ‘numbers of publications’ to focus on the more important aspect of research, that
is, how to make a real impact on the health and well-being of mankind.
I started to formulate strategies to overcome this challenge and I decided to utilize
an approach where I can generate and test my own research questions in a way which
made them translatable and simple to scale up. This often means thinking of translation
at the very start of the research process and then designing and refining your research
accordingly. I now also ensure that I collaborate with other researchers and health
professionals with different areas of expertise in order to consciously foster collaboration
and promote an interdisciplinary approach to my work. I believe that this process
has helped me design research which bridges the gap between benchtop and bedside and,
by considering the translation aspect at the design stage and throughout the execution
of my projects, I believe this will help me deliver research with direct impact for
population health.
How do you feel you have impacted your field?
In my short research career thus far, I feel I have made an important impact to the
field of disease prevention research and that my work has provided new knowledge and
unraveled novel pathways by which vitamin D may improve metabolic health. My research
has addressed several knowledge gaps and identified new avenues to guide future research
in this area. I was able to show that vitamin D is unlikely to be beneficial for the
prevention of diabetes on a population scale but may reduce underlying risk factors
such as inflammation. I have now started examining the role of vitamin D in inflammation
in more detail and I have started exploring whether genetic variations related to
vitamin D metabolism may play a role, such that perhaps subgroups of populations may
benefit more than others. These findings may have important clinical implications
for the treatment of vitamin D deficiency as well as for treating diseases associated
with inflammation. I aim to continue impacting on this field by testing and validating
other interventions for the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic diseases in
the hopes that my research will one day lead to meaningful discoveries and improved
health outcomes.
What are your aims for the future?
My aims for the future are:
To contribute to knowledge and to make meaningful discoveries and share these discoveries
for the greater good;
To never stop questioning and to continue to search for truth, and never shy away
from it, regardless of whether this truth agrees with my initial theories;
To be meticulous in my methods and to work in partnership and build on the learnings
of those who came before me;
To continually and relentlessly seek knowledge, build my skills and further my understanding
into how we as a society, scientific and otherwise, can improve health outcomes on
a global scale and prevent chronic and debilitating diseases; and
To teach, both formally and through leading by example, future generations of researchers
and scientists, such that the knowledge and skills passed down to me can be carried
forward for years to come.
What advice do you have for early career researchers looking to take the next step
in their career?
Being an early career researcher is not an easy feat! We dive head-first into a career
where we need to develop a professional identity and research independence while competing
for grants, teaching and supervising students, and dealing with increased administrative
duties, all the while maintaining our research output. My advice to early career researchers
is twofold; first, surround yourselves with the right people. That is, people who
will take the time to support you, who will foster your growth and development, who
will provide you with the opportunities you need to succeed and most of all, who will
not take advantage of your hard work and diligence. Second, look for hidden opportunities
in everything. Say yes, often. You may get overwhelmed and some jobs may seem daunting
or pointless, but there are always opportunities, even if they are not immediately
apparent. These opportunities may be as simple as collaborating with new colleagues
or teams, demonstrating your skills or learning new ones, or simply getting your name
out there and building a ‘go-getter’ reputation. As early career researchers, we often
need to be mentored and provided with opportunities to excel, and being a ‘yes’ person
goes a long way in ensuring that those opportunities keep coming.