I lost my mom at two years old to cancer. From an early age, I wanted to become a doctor – someone who could help heal and prevent death.
I’ve had a lot of different experiences. I worked at a homeless shelter, pursued Persian poetry, took anthropology courses, worked at a bank, performed as a DJ, and got into real estate development.
My father remarried when I was very young to a woman who became my second mother. But when I was in my early twenties, she also passed away. It was a wake-up call that I was meant to pursue medicine.
I had friends and cousins who went to McGill, and I would visit them when I lived in New York City. I wanted to learn French and have the Montreal experience. McGill has a beautiful campus, nestled in the heart of a magical city, and the University gave me the opportunity to develop into the professional I always aspired to be.
It’s been great to work in the North. A lot of times, you're the only doctor in the community and you have to do whatever you can with the resources you have. It’s also extremely rewarding to serve the Indigenous communities and learn from their ancient wisdom. In Montreal, we launched a clinic to help people improve their health, largely through an emphasis on nutrition, but also factors such as stress management, smoking cessation, an active lifestyle, and restful sleep.
Our work at the clinic yielded great results for patients with GI issues. So, we paired up with a Microsoft programmer and started developing a gut health app that focuses on IBD and IBS. After our merger with another local start-up, we created Phyla, an AI-enhanced digital therapeutics tool specializing in IBD management and microbiome data analysis. We're starting to do research with McGill and CHU Sainte-Justine to evaluate our technology.
I'm hopeful that we could eventually help improve gut health for the masses, including up North.
I am also looking at combining psychotherapy with psychedelic medicines to treat a range of mental health issues. For example, ketamine and esketamine for depression and suicidality, MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder, and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) for depression and end-of-life distress. It is an exciting treatment avenue.