Nurgul Sikhayeva was born in the Aktobe region into a family of educators. Even in school, she showed an interest in science, winning prizes at olympiads and scientific project competitions in biology.

After graduating from school, she received a grant to study Biotechnology at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University. In 2009-2011, she became a scholar of the Bolashak program and continued her studies in the master’s program at the National Polytechnic Institute of Lorraine (France). During her studies in France, she gained deep knowledge and practical experience in the field of bioindustry.

Upon returning to her homeland, Nurgul Sikhayeva engaged in research in the field of biotechnology. She specializes in population genetics and human genome studies. She was also the head of a pilot research project to identify immunodeficiency states in newborns.

Nurgul Sikhayeva is the author of over 80 scientific papers, including 49 articles published in journals indexed in the international databases Web of Science and Scopus. She also holds 10 patents, two of which are registered internationally. According to Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science), her h-index is 6.

For her achievements in science, Nurgul Sikhayeva has been awarded a number of honors, including an Honorary Diploma from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2009), the badge “For Contribution to the Development of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan” (2016), and the badge “For Merits in the Development of Healthcare” (2022).