When Nabaa Ali was considering her summer options before her final semester at the University of Toledo, she had a choice of prestigious research opportunities to choose from.
Ali, a fourth-year student majoring in biology and women and gender studies and minoring in chemistry, has been accepted into several National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites, including the University of Michigan’s Cancer Research Summer Internship Program, the Johns Hopkins University Summer Internship Program, and two programs at the University of Chicago’s Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology Summer Program and the Pritzker School of Medicine Research Experience Program.
Naba Ali, a fourth-year biology and women and gender studies major and chemistry minor, recently participated in the highly selective Memorial Sloan Kettering Molecular Imaging Summer Program in Manhattan.
It was a tough choice, but one she thinks she made the right one with the Molecular Imaging Summer Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, she said.
“It was awesome,” Ali said shortly before recently completing the 10-week program at the hospital rated the second-best cancer hospital in the country by U.S. News & World Report. “I studied a lot of chemistry and biology. This program really helped me figure out what I want to do in the future and, of course, helped me gain those very important lab skills.”
The REU program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in National Science Foundation-funded research areas. Designated sites around the country host interns each summer, and in 2024 UToledo’s Department of Physics and Astronomy will be one of them.
Ali was one of 10 undergraduate students to participate in Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Molecular Imaging Summer Program, which provided him with invaluable benchside mentorship as well as the opportunity to network with many of the Center’s leading scientists and physicians. In keeping with his interest in biomedical research, Ali worked with a postdoctoral fellow on a project involving radiopharmaceuticals for targeted cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Ali has a strong interest in biomedical research as it relates to advances in cancer treatment and hopes to apply this research to the field of global public health. With plans to attend medical school and complete an MD-PhD, Ali is ultimately interested in exploring treatments that are not only effective but also accessible and affordable in developing countries – a goal she credits to being inspired by her childhood experiences in Libya and her participation in medical missions in Honduras and Guatemala.
Ali was 13 when her family moved to Sylvania in 2016. She immediately began enrolling in courses at UToledo through the state’s College Credit Plus program, which allows students to start taking college classes while still in high school, allowing Ali to earn her associate’s degree from UToledo before earning her Toledo Early College High School diploma in 2021. Ali says the research opportunities and welcoming environment she found on campus convinced her to enroll at UToledo as a full-time student.

Ali said the research opportunities and welcoming environment on campus enticed her to enroll as a full-time student at UToledo.
Since then, she has enjoyed participating in UToledo’s Relay for Life, through which she led a team of over 30 students to raise funds for patients and cancer research at the American Cancer Society. Ali also quickly joined the lab of Dr. Rafael Garcia Mata, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UToledo.
Garcia Mata studies Rho GTPases, a family of enzymes that control many aspects of cell behavior, with a particular focus on their role in cancer progression. Under the guidance of Garcia Mata, Research Associate Professor Silvia Goicoechea, PhD, and several doctoral students, Ali has been specifically studying the regulation of tight and adherens junctions through SGEFs.
“Junctions act as the ‘glue’ that connects cells to their environment,” Ali says, “and their downregulation is associated with cancer metastasis, so it is important to understand how junctions are regulated.”
Garcia Mata speaks highly of undergraduate researchers.
“Nava has an impeccable work ethic, is curious and ambitious, and is always looking for new opportunities to broaden her horizons,” Garcia Mata said. “We are excited to see where she takes this research at Memorial Sloan Kettering.”