Hajira Karim

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Hajira Karim is a third-year international medical student at Istanbul Medipol University, also pursuing a double major in Health Management. During her high school years in Dubai, she actively competed in STEM competitions and completed advanced AP courses in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics.

In her first year of medical school, she undertook a ten-week clinical rotation across four top-50 U.S. hospitals, collaborating with American physicians and presenting a research poster at a U.S. conference, supported by Medipol’s International School of Medicine. At Medipol, Hajira works at the Q-Lab within SABITA (Research Institute for Health Sciences and Technologies). She has secured a national TUSEB A1 Research Grant to support her project, “Artificial Intelligence–Assisted Micro-CT Analyses and Data Correlation on Nutrition, Cancer Progression, and Drug Resistance”. As part of the top-10 cohort of her medical class, she also qualified for SRP (BAP-funded) research, under which she investigates the effects of intermittent fasting on Cancer progression and metastasis in mice via chemogenetic stimulation of AgRP neurons.

Hajira was awarded a prestigious, fully funded paid summer research scholarship at the University of Cambridge—a highly competitive honor granted to only two students worldwide. She conducted research at the Institute of Metabolic Science and Cambridge’s School of Clinical Medicine at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, focusing on cutting-edge questions at the intersection of cancer biology, metabolic science, and neuroscience.

Her academic interests span molecular analysis of neurons, cognitive–behavioral studies in animal models, microsurgical techniques, reproductive biology, and electrophysiology. She aims to translate complex scientific insights into practical healthcare solutions. Beyond academia, Hajira serves as an official board member and Next Gen lead for the International Women of Istanbul, and she is an advocate for women’s health—having addressed these issues at United Nations Headquarters in New York.