Sabrina Heman-Ackah, M.D., DPhil

Alumni Director
Resident Physician, Neurosurgery
University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Sabrina M. Heman-Ackah, MD, DPhil, MSE is a 2016 graduate of the NIH Oxford-Cambridge
Scholars Program (NIH OxCam). While in NIH OxCam, she utilized the CRISPR/Cas9 genome
editing system, applied to patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to discover novel
insights about the role of alpha-synuclein overexpression in Parkinson’s disease pathogenesis.
After graduating NIH OxCam and completing her MD via the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill MD-PhD Program, she joined the University of Pennsylvania Neurosurgery Residency
Program, where she is now in her sixth year of training. During her junior residency, her
interests developed towards skull base neurosurgery, where the most intricate parts of the
brain that influence our interactions with the external world may be ravaged both by pathology
and available approaches to treatment. She concurrently completed a Master of Science in
Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, aligned with her goal of applying machine
learning and artificial intelligence to better understand and improve outcomes for patients
undergoing surgery for lesions of the skull base.

Sabrina recognizes the tremendous benefit that her experience in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge
Scholars Program and concurrent opportunities afforded by the IBRA during her time in the
program have had on her career trajectory. As such, she has maintained an active connection to
both and has demonstrated a fervent desire to ensure such opportunities continue for future
NIH OxCam Scholars. Sabrina currently serves as the Alumni Lead of the NIH OxCam-IBRA
Professional Development Program, a longitudinal professional mentorship program intended
to provide Scholars focused career mentorship in addition to the already profound mentorship
in the biomedical sciences afforded by the NIH OxCam Program. She is honored and humbled
by the opportunity to join the International Biomedical Research Alliance Board of Directors as
an Alumni Director.