Dr Amaal Abrahams is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She obtained an undergraduate degree in molecular biology and a PhD from the Department of Medical Biochemistry at UCT. Following her PhD, Dr Abrahams took up a postdoctoral position at the University of Rennes in France and in 2009 she returned to South Africa as a postdoctoral fellow where she joined the Department of Human Biology at UCT. In 2012 based on her research expertise, she received the highly competitive Hasso Plattner Foundation research fellowship which is awarded to outstanding emerging young basic or clinical scientists. While Dr Abrahams continues to have a great interest in basic research, the balance has slowly shifted towards medical education. The opportunity to teach and mentor students at both an undergraduate and postgraduate level has led her to complete a postgraduate diploma in Health Professional Education. In the last few years, her research has focused on the development of formative assessments, academic student support programmes and innovative formative learning tools to enhance students’ understanding of anatomy and physiology. Dr Abrahams has received numerous outstanding awards and prestigious scholarships. In 2018 she was awarded the Faculty of Health Sciences’ Excellence in Teaching Award which recognises outstanding teaching that encourages and supports students’ academic development. Her research has been published in numerous high impact international journals and has been presented at national and international conferences.