Amr Baalbaki is a second-year Biology PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Born in Damascus, Syria, he later moved to Amman, Jordan, due to the civil war. After graduating from Amman Academy, he attended Yale University, majoring in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. During his time at Yale, Amr developed a passion for scientific research, working as an undergraduate researcher in the Yan lab, where he studied breast cancer metastasis. By his junior year, he discovered a deep interest in RNA biology and joined Joan Steitz’s laboratory to study RNA triple helices. Currently, Amr is studying mRNA decay in David Bartel’s laboratory.