About
Independent by design.
Basira is a research and training group in cancer metabolism, based in Jeddah. We built a full curriculum, we run a cohort programme, and we publish everything we make.
The name is Arabic: بصيرة — the faculty of seeing truly. We chose it because the hardest part of research is not technique. It is discernment: knowing what a result licenses, and what it does not.
Over nine weeks we take undergraduates and teach them to design, run and honestly interpret a piece of computational research. Everyone finishes with a pre-registered study of their own — not a set exercise, a real question they went and found.
The standard
Everything we teach comes back to four rules, and we hold our own work to them exactly as strictly.
Every number is computed
Nothing in a table or a figure is typed by hand. If a number cannot be traced back to the line of code that produced it, it does not go in.
Thresholds fixed first
Cut-offs, subgroups and endpoints are written down before any result is seen. A threshold chosen after the fact is a decision made by the answer you wanted.
Controls before claims
A positive control has to fire before anything else is believed. If it does not, the pipeline is wrong — not the biology.
Untested is not negative
What could not be tested is reported as untested. Those are different claims and we keep them apart.
The last one matters more than it looks. A great deal of published science quietly reports “we could not test this” as though it meant “we tested this and found nothing.” One is an admission and the other is a finding, and treating them as the same thing is how a field fills up with results nobody ever checked.
Why all of it is public
The full curriculum is free to read, free to share and free to teach from. No sign-up, no email wall, no catch.
Two reasons. Work anyone can inspect is work that can be corrected, which makes it better. And a student at another university who never joins a cohort can still use every page of it.
What we work on
Our research is in cancer metabolism, using large public datasets — dependency screens, tumour expression cohorts, curated gene resources. We are drawn to the questions the field cites constantly and has tested rarely.
We publish what did not work as well. Four research directions have been explored and set aside, and the reasons are taught directly in the curriculum — knowing how to abandon your own idea is a skill worth teaching deliberately.
The team
Who runs Basira
Aroob Gomosani
Founder & Programme Lead
Sets the scientific direction and carries final responsibility for the quality and integrity of the group's work. Biochemistry, King Abdulaziz University.
Seba Al Eitani
General Director
Oversees the group's direction and how it is run, and was central to building Basira from the ground up.
Haneen Marghalani
Training & Delivery
Prepares and delivers the training materials, and runs the sessions with each cohort. Biochemistry, King Abdulaziz University.
Aseel Alghamdi
Operations Manager
Runs the practical side of the programme — scheduling, cohorts and the machinery that keeps sessions happening on time.
The first cohort
What they said afterwards
From the first cohort, after the programme finished.
“
A great opportunity to strengthen my understanding of research concepts, learn from dedicated mentors, and build skills that will support my future in scientific research. The sessions were well organised, the material was clear and easy to follow, and they were always patient, supportive, and willing to help whenever we had questions.
“
This journey was filled with learning, collaboration, and inspiration. A heartfelt thank you to the founders and instructors for generously sharing their expertise and for creating such a supportive environment for aspiring researchers.
“
Grateful to have been part of the first Basira cohort. A sincere thank you to the mentors for your time, guidance, and dedication. I’m proud to have been part of this journey and excited to see Basira continue to grow and inspire future researchers.
Get in touch
We read everything sent to us.
If you are a student, apply. If you are a researcher who has read the materials and thinks something in them is wrong, tell us — that is exactly why we published them. contact@researchbasira.com