Michael grew up in New York and attended New York University for his undergraduate studies. At NYU, Michael studied chemistry and worked as an undergraduate researcher in Professor Ned Seeman’s lab in the field of structural DNA nanotechnology. After graduating from NYU, Michael moved to Stanford University to pursue his PhD in chemistry under the mentorship of Professor Eric Kool. At Stanford, Michael’s research in chemical biology and nucleotide chemistry culminated in his thesis entitled “Chimeric Dinucleotides: Expanding the DNA Polymerase Toolkit.” Currently, Michael is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Professor Ronald Breaker at Yale University, where he is conducting RNA engineering research with applications in gene therapy. Michael is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) awardee of the Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF). Michael has long-standing research interests in the chemical and synthetic biology of nucleic acids. He is motivated by research questions that have applications in therapeutics and biotechnology.
As a Lebanese-American and Muslim individual, Michael is committed to advocating for Muslim and Arab communities (as well as other minority groups) within academia. During his time at Stanford, Michael worked with the Markaz Resource Center to provide anti-Islamophobia workshops for students and staff members to help raise awareness of the ways that Islamophobia presents itself in university settings. In his personal time, Michael enjoys cooking, playing video games, practicing piano, and hanging out with his wonderful wife Jessie and their son Zaki.
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