Alyaa El-Guindy

Alyaa grew up in Katy, Texas for most of her upbringing after which she moved to the Middle East to attend high school in Doha, Qatar. Alyaa returned to the U.S. in 2018 to begin her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin where she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science and Arts in Biology and a certificate in Spanish. During her time at UT, she really enjoyed her lab coursework, particularly that in the field of microbiology, prompting her to pursue a career in this area. Alyaa joined the Forsberg Lab at UT Southwestern Medical Center where she is studying the co-evolutionary arms race between bacteria and phages and the defense strategies that each employs in response to the other. 

As an avid reader, Alyaa spends much of her downtime reading novels, but also enjoys watching Netflix, painting, and crocheting. Originally Egyptian, she has a deep-rooted appreciation for exploring different cultures and gaining new experiences and hopes to continue to do so during her time in Dallas.