Aya holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Bath with her thesis focussing on the development of a highly sensitive multi-electrode array for the study of glioblastoma multiforme, breast cancer, and stem cell differentiation. Her work was funded by a Schlumberger Foundation Faculty for the Future Fellowship and, in 2020, she was selected as an Innovator Under 35 by MIT Technology Review MENA. She joined the Armstrong Group as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in June 2022 and is working on a project seeking to develop complex models of the human brain.