Lema Abuoqab

My name is Lema Abuoqab. I was born and raised in Fort Myers, FL, and am an undergraduate students at Tufts University. I am majoring in biology and biotechnology, on the premedical track. Asides from my studies, I am involved in numerous extracurriculars that apply to my medical pursuits and interests in health. Some of my favorite involvements are listed below:
- I serve on the executive board of Tufts Biology Research, the Tufts University Chapter of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; I am Secretary and Director of Conferences. We serve Our club is dedicated to connecting Tufts undergraduate students with research opportunities. We serve as liaison to professors and lab groups in various STEM departments at Tufts. We offer workshops which teach basic skills for scientific reading and writing, speaker series events to expose undergrads to research projects at Tufts, and other career development opportunities. I am in charge of organizing our travel team to attend national ASBMB research conferences.
- I am the founder of Lema Art & Writing, LLC. My goal is to create advanced elementary-level reading through a series of children’s books that combine fictional narratives with real, science-based content, and to provide a relatable experience for my audience. These books are meant to break the stereotypes of typical children’s literature to promote more thought-provoking opportunities in reading. I have since published Eric's Brain Elementary and Embrace Your Brace, which can be found on Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and my website www.lemaartandwriting.com
- I am a student researcher at the Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center, where I work in the O'Tierney-Ginn laboratory. I am involved in investigating how the maternal environment during pregnancy, specifically maternal obesity, affect fetal health outcomes postpartum. I have been able to present my research at various conferences, including the 2022 Experimental Biology Conference hosted by ASBMB in Philadelphia, and the Tufts University Undergraduate Research Symposium. This research can be found in the May 2022 Edition of the FASEB Journal.
- I am an active tutor for elementary school students, and particularly have invested my time volunteering for Tutors Without Borders. I tutor pediatric cancer patients in English, math, and the visual arts over Zoom.