Academic Staff

Dr. F. Pınar Gördesli Duatepe received her B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering at Hacettepe University. She started her academic career as a research assistant in the same department and completed her M.Sc. degree by participating in a research project supported by TUBITAK. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at Washington State University in USA. Her Ph.D. studies were supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Following her experience at a private company, she was appointed Assistant Professor at Izmir University of Economics, Faculty of Engineering. Her main research areas include biofilms, factors affecting the adhesion mechanisms of bacteria to surfaces at the nano-scale, reaction kinetics and bio-nanotechnology-based topics such as characterization of the elasticity of cells and nano-mechanical properties of molecules on the cell surface by atomic force microscopy.

Zeynep FIRTINA KARAGONLAR completed her bachelor degree in Biological Sciences and Bioengineering Department at Sabancı University. Then, she received her PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics at University of Delaware in the USA. After completing her PhD studies, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at University of Pennsylvania Medical School between 2010-2012 and at Dokuz Eylul Medical School between 2013-2015. Her research areas include tumor microenvironment and cancer stem cells on cancer promotion and drug resistance.

Lecturer Dr. Gülizar Çalışkan Bilgin received her B.Sc., M.Sc and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Bioengineering, Ege University, Turkey in 2011, 2014 and 2020 respectively. During her Ph.D., she worked in the NanoBioprocess and Process Analytical Technology Laboratory at Ege University and took part in the TUBITAK 1001 Project on “Optimization of Synthesis of Biogenic Nanoparticles by Microalgae and Potential Use in Biotechnology”. She is a lecturer at Izmir University of Economics since 2016. Dr. Çalışkan Bilgin took part in various national and TÜBİTAK supported projects in the fields of biotechnology, bioprocess and bioengineering as a consultant and a scholar. She is currently the principle investigator in a scientific research project on the sustainable use of microalgae. Her areas of interest are bioprocesses, bioreactors, nanobiotechnology, bioproducts, their optimization and characterization.

Dr. Yağmur Kiraz was graduated from İstanbul University, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2013. She earned her MSc and PhD from İzmir Institute of Technology, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. During her PhD studies, she received a scholarship from TUBITAK-BIDEB-2214A International Fellowship Programme for PhD students and worked in Health Science Center, Stony Brook University, NY, USA between 2017 and 2019 to conduct her PhD project. Her PhD project focused on “Targeting Sphingolipids to Overcome Imatinib Resistance in Ph+ Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia”. Her research is placed around drug resistance mechanisms in different type of leukemia and the involvement of sphingolipids in chemotherapy resistance. During her graduate education, she received many prestigious awards from different institutions/conferences including “Health Security Partners Futures Fellowship”; “Qualified in a global competition among young scientists worldwide to participate in the 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting”; “Youth Travel Fund” from 2019 FEBS Special Meeting; “Young Researcher Award” from Turkish Hematology Association. Dr. Kiraz has more than 30 abstracts presented in national and international conferences and over 15 articles published in international journals/books.

He was born in 1992 in Izmir. He graduated from Fatma Saygın Anatolian High School in 2010. He completed his undergraduate education in Manisa Celal Bayar University, Department of Bioengineering. During his undergraduate education, he worked on nano-sized drug delivery systems and their characterization against cancer cells. He completed his master's education at Izmir University of Economics and continues his doctoral education at Ege University, Department of Biotechnology. He is involved in researching alternative (noncanonical) DNA structures, the roles of G-quadruplex discovered in the bacterial genome, cancer immunology, virtual drug screening, development of novel gene therapies against viral and genetic diseases. He is also working as a research assistant at Izmir University of Economics, Department of Genetics and Bioengineering.

Following his education at Izmir Private Çakabey Highschool, Dr. Yandım obtained his BSc. in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University. He conducted research at Harvard University Medical School as well as University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he performed research on immunology and stem cell treatment. His emerging interest in gene control and epigenetics paved the way for him to do a PhD in this field at Imperial College London, where he was supported by a full scholarship from the Medical Research Council of United Kingdom. His findings on reversing gene dysregulation in an incurable form of ataxia led him to pursue an exploratory clinical trial. He published the results of this study in "The Lancet", which is one of the top-ranked scientific journals in the world. He continued his postdoctoral studies also in London at the Institute of Cancer Research, where he studied signal transduction in cancer. He is currently focused on revealing the interplay between repetitive DNA and cancer as well as aging. He also conducts studies on interdisciplinary biology and next-generation computational drug design. Dr. Yandım is an honorary associate at Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center (iBG).

RESEARCH and PROFESSIONAL WORK EXPERIENCE Postdoctoral Research Associate (2011 - 2015) College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Michigan State University Postdoctoral Research Associate (2010 - 2011) Department of Chemistry Michigan State University Graduate Teaching Assistant (2004 – 2010) College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Michigan State University Graduate Research Assistant (2002 – 2010) College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Michigan State University Liquid Ink Specialist (R & D Department) (1997 – 1999) Sun Chemical Chemical Engineer (QC and RD Department) (1994 – 1997) Sun Chemical

Dr. Mine Güngörmüşler received her B.Sc. degree from the Department of Biology, Hacettepe University, Turkey, in 2007, her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Bioengineering, Ege University, Turkey in 2010 and 2014, respectively. She completed the second half of her Ph.D. research at the University of Bologna, Italy, and the University of Manitoba, Canada between January 2012 to October 2013. Following her graduation, she worked for a multinational diagnostics company for 3 years. She is a faculty member at the Department of Genetics and Bioengineering at Izmir University of Economics (IEU) since September 2017. She has been appointed to the Head of the Department of Bioengineering Graduate Program at IUE between 2018 and 2023. She is the Vice Dean of IUE Graduate School since 2019. On March 24, 2023, she received the title of Associate Professor from ÜAK. Dr. Güngörmüşler is the co-founder of HOPE Biotechnology Research and Development Inc. HOPE Biotechnology was established by 4 partners from academia, on January 25, 2022, in Izmir Bilimpark Incubation Center, by qualifying for support with their project entitled "Valuable Bioproduct Production from Solid and Gaseous Wastes" under the scope of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) 1512 BİGG grant. Dr. Güngörmüşler took part in various national and TÜBİTAK supported projects in the fields of biohydrogen, biovalorization, food technology, and biotechnology as a Principle Investigator, a Researcher, and a Scholar. She has co-authored over 20 international publications on sustainability, environmental biotechnology, and bioproducts in leading international peer-reviewed journals and participated in national and international conferences. Her areas of interest are biohydrogen production, renewable energy, waste biovalorization, environmental biotechnology, immobilized bioreactor systems, fermentation, proteomics, biostatistics, and probiotics.