As conflict engulfed her homeland, Dr. Maysa Niazy made a decision to leave Sudan and a region that was becoming increasingly unstable. With a deep love for science and a desire to secure a better future for her children, she and her family moved to Canada, where she would eventually arrive at the University of Guelph.
It would be a long journey for Niazy. Navigating grief, homesickness and a career transition, learning to speak a new language and balancing research projects, coursework and teaching assistant duties – all while raising four children in a new country – would have been difficult for anyone.
But more challenges would come during her doctoral research, when Niazy lost both her parents to illness.
“It was a very hard time,” she says. “There were moments I thought, ‘I should quit’.”
But she never did. Instead, Niazy threw herself into her PhD research, where she developed new machine learning tools to analyze massive biological datasets and connect them to real-world health outcomes.
She studied COVID-19 blood tests to see if certain molecules could predict the severity of a person’s sickness. She looked at bacteria in pigs and drew connections to these data and reproductive health. She learned to make sense of both molecular systems and large ecosystems alike, under the microscope and in statistical models.
And before she knew it, she had finished her research projects and was writing the opening pages of her thesis:
“In loving memory of my beloved parents, whose unwavering strength and endless love continue to guide my soul, even in their absence.”
This June, Niazy will cross the convocation stage having completed her PhD in bioinformatics in only three years.
She says she owes her success to her family and her advisors Drs. Heather Murphy and Nicole Ricker, who provided the encouragement, inspiration and enthusiasm needed to continue.
“I found a new home and a clear pathway ahead at U of G,” Niazy says.
Meanwhile, Ricker describes Niazy as one of the most dedicated people she knows.
“When I think of Maysa, three words come to mind: resilience, dedication and compassion,” says Ricker, professor in the Department of Pathobiology.
“I remember early in her program she travelled overseas to care for her ill family member. We set up regular virtual meetings, and despite her increased care responsibilities, she always arrived at each meeting with significant progress. Maysa was the first to remember her lab mates’ birthdays and to bring homemade treats to celebrate their successes. Maysa never allowed herself to do less than her best, even when life made it challenging.”
From Sudan to Canada, U of G student finds support to overcome challenges
Niazy and her family arrived in Canada in 2018. Already with a master’s degree from the University of Khartoum, she says U of G was always her first choice to continue graduate school. With over ten years of veterinary experience in Sudan, she says the University and its global reputation in veterinary studies was a perfect fit for her.
Still, expectations lingered from her past career.
“When I told people I wanted to learn about machine learning and AI, they always said, ‘Just keep being a vet. Keep studying animals in Sudan,’” she says.
But she was always interested in more than just treating diseases.
“I’m a busy mom and have an analytical mind, and I love statistics and data,” she says. “I realized that if you are passionate about something, you should just go and do it, whatever people say.”
During her first program at U of G, a Master of Science in bioinformatics, she learned the language of programming amid advanced courses on genomics and biological data analysis. She made extensive use of university resources; the McLaughlin Library’s writing services supported her in shaping and refining her thesis.
She discovered her favourite class, statistical bioinformatics, led by Dr. Khurram Nadeem, in which she learned how to code and develop machine learning models and apply them to biological research.
This would be a main theme of her PhD, in which she transferred immediately after this second master’s degree of her life. She had a vision of machine learning and AI tools becoming more integrated into biological research to help inform policy, develop vaccines, warn people about the next pandemic and heal people and animals of sickness.
Her PhD became a massive project, addressing this fundamental gap in science: there’s a lot of biological data out there, but not enough guidance on how to analyze them. Her work sharpened the guidelines on when to use certain statistical models over others.
And despite her early worries about transitioning careers, she realized it was her previous experience as a vet that gave her fresh insight.
“Working and treating animals showed me the difference between good and bad data, and what we can do with powerful data,” she says.
Today, Niazy extends the work of her PhD as a Canadian Institutes of Health Research postdoctoral researcher at McMaster University, studying the immune system and integrating next-generation data with machine learning.
All of this she once thought was impossible. But now her time at U of G comes to a close.
Niazy will graduate thinking about all those who supported her: her friends, her advisors Drs. Brandon Lillie and Vahab Farzan, her family in Canada and those she left behind in Sudan.
“What keeps me going are the prayers from my husband, Arif, and my sons Awab, Eyad and Aamin, as well as my daughter Woud,” she says. “And I will always be appreciative of the generosity and inspiration that my mentors at U of G have given me. Without their help, this work would never have been completed, and I would not be standing here today.”
Discover more about the inspiring journeys of our graduates and how the University of Guelph shaped their paths