A low mechanical hum echoes through the NYU Abu Dhabi Center for Brain and Health as the MRI roars to life. Slice by slice, a human brain begins to materialize on the screen, its intricate architecture emerging from the noise.
Behind the glow of the monitor, Kawader Fellow Dana Alkalali is helping to turn those images into a deeper understanding of brain health in the UAE.
As a research assistant, Alkalali is part of a team building the UAE’s first multimodal dataset that combines MRI images with genetic data and cognitive tests from hundreds of UAE locals and residents.
Collecting brain health dataset
Each volunteer spends about an hour in the scanner, completing structural and functional MRI along with memory and cognitive tasks, before giving a saliva sample for genetic analysis. The result is a “multimodal” picture that links brain structure and activity with DNA and behavior in the same person.
Working under center director Bas Rokers, the project draws on the UK Biobank, a 500,000-person database that has helped scientists uncover links between genetics, lifestyle, and disease.
Importantly, this project addresses a key limitation: its predominantly Caucasian cohort does not always reflect how disease develops, or medicines work in more diverse populations.
Working on a regional dataset
In Abu Dhabi, the team is partnering with national efforts such as the UAE Healthy Future Study — a national research cohort with about 16,000 Emirati participants — to invite volunteers for brain scans, mirroring the repeat assessments that made the UK Biobank so powerful while anchoring the data in a very different climate, diet, and health system.
“We’re at around 500 participants so far, but once this dataset is complete, we’ll finally be able to say what health looks like for people in the UAE. Things like what’s driven by our environment and what’s written in our genes,” Alkalali says.
Most volunteers are young adults and students, but the study aims to expand to a broader cohort of UAE residents aged 18 to 60, creating a resource that can be used for decades across different diseases and life stages.
“The most exciting part for me is treatment,” she says. “Different ethnicities respond to medications differently, and we rarely account for that. If we understand how people here process specific drugs, we can reduce side effects and choose options that genuinely fit this population.”
Every MRI scan is also reviewed by clinicians at Cleveland Clinic for unexpected abnormalities, a safeguard that doubles as a free health check and, for many participants, a first detailed look at their own brain.
Putting women’s health under the lens
Alkalali’s work also places women’s health at the center of brain research.
In an early-stage, ongoing study, her team collaborates with a local fertility clinic to study women undergoing egg freezing, inviting them for repeated scans throughout their treatment and menstrual cycles.
Each visit measures hormone levels alongside brain activity, capturing how shifts in estrogen and progesterone may shape regions linked to mood, memory, and decision-making.
The aim is to investigate how hormonal changes affect brain activity and how fertility treatments alter these patterns, to help inform care decisions.
Alkalali is determined to isolate the effects of hormone changes themselves, not to fuel simplistic stories about “women’s brains” in a field where results can easily be misunderstood once they leave the lab.
In return for committing to the full protocol, these female volunteers receive financial support on egg freezing, making a costly procedure more accessible while contributing to one of the first datasets of its kind in the region.
“Egg freezing is one of the biggest decisions many women make,” she says. “We want to provide clearer evidence about what it means for their bodies and brains.”
Global training, local impact
Dubai-born Alkalali studied neuroscience at Northeastern University in Boston before earning a master’s in genomic medicine at Queen Mary University of London.
She briefly explored becoming a genetic counselor before seeing a role back in the UAE that brought her two specialties together: a position focused on brain imaging and genetics at NYUAD.
Now based in Abu Dhabi, Alkalali feels a particular responsibility in her work. Her years of study abroad have shaped how she thinks about evidence and equity in medicine, but what matters most to her is applying that training at home.
“I’m proud that this work is rooted here,” she says. “We’re creating knowledge that belongs to the UAE and truly serves the community around us.”
That sense of purpose is rooted in her own family history. Her mother, Salma Hareb, worked in a hospital hematology lab for a decade before changing careers and making history as one of the first Emirati women to hold a top leadership role in the UAE, serving as CEO of JAFZA.
Growing up, Alkalali watched as her mother combined scientific training with executive responsibility and saw how seriously colleagues and leaders took her voice.
“I feel like I’m building on a standard of excellence that already exists in this country,” she says. “There is so much talent here, and I’m proud that my work is part of that story.”
The work unfolding on her screen in Abu Dhabi feeds into global debates about equity in medicine and women’s health, but it begins with a simple idea she shares with her mother’s generation: that science and leadership gain strength when they are rooted in the communities they serve.
The NYUAD Kawader Research Assistantship Program is a unique, national capacity-building research fellowship program that allows outstanding graduates to gain experience in a cutting-edge academic research environment. This three-year, individually tailored, intensive program offers two distinct paths for Emirati graduates considering a graduate degree or a research career.
