Hi there!
I'm Saaim.
My north star is working toward a world where a treatment for hearing loss is available to anyone, anywhere.
About Me
Where It All Began
When I was four years old, I was diagnosed with sudden sensorineural hearing loss. It changed my life completely. For over a decade, my parents and I went from specialist to specialist and got no answers to a seemingly simple question: What caused my hearing loss, especially since I wasn't born with it?
The lack of clarity surrounding the basis of my hearing loss left my immigrant parents with even more questions:
- Would my hearing loss progress or would it stay stable?
- Between hearing aids, cochlear implants, and BAHA devices, what is the best intervention option?
- Educationally, what interventions & support do I need?
- And so many more.
Instead of letting these questions take over and define me, I took matters into my own hands. In high school, I emailed over 500 professors in the hopes of finding one who would be willing to work with me. Although I was ghosted by hundreds and rejected by dozens, I persisted until one - Dr. Jeffrey Tseng at Wayne State University - agreed. I worked with Dr. Tseng for 3 years, leading a project on using computational drug discovery to identify potential hearing loss drug candidates.
While reflecting on my research experiences towards the end of high school, I realized that there are a lot of unnecessary barriers to research and I wanted to change that. So, I launched two free Udemy courses designed to teach anyone, anywhere how to get involved with research that they care about - Conducting Introductory Computational Biology Research and Structural Biology 101: A Beginner's Guide. To date, these courses have reached over 10,000 people from 140+ countries. From high school students to retirees, I've been incredibly lucky to hear the impact of my courses directly from my students, who truly come from all walks of life.
I then went on to Harvard College, where I studied Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology and American Sign Language. Outside the classroom, I was deeply involved with multiple hearing loss research labs, venture capital (VC) investing, global education initiatives, cultural organizations, and hard-of-hearing (HoH) + D/deaf advocacy.
Now, as a medical student at Harvard Medical School, that passion and fire has only grown as I strive to become a HoH + D/deaf-forward ENT physician.
Working on hearing loss from multiple angles - from research to VC to advocacy to education - has always felt necessary to me because I aim to build as holistic of an understanding of the hearing loss space as I can while also giving myself plenty of space to explore my other interests and passions.
Beyond the world of hearing loss, I'm a diehard ice hockey fan; I love to play the piano and bassoon; and I enjoy building mini-projects on a wide range of topics - from NHL analytics to Islamic finance to hearing accessibility tools.
For more information, see the snapshot below plus the Projects and Experience tabs, and please don't hesitate to reach out through the Contact tab.
Snapshot
What I've been working on
Here's a high level summary of what's been keeping me busy. For more details see the Projects and Experience tabs.