Disease Mechanisms and Targeted Therapies

He is currently a lecturer at Izmir Tınaztepe University Faculty of Medicine and the director of IZTU Galen Research Center.

He was born in 1952 in Bolu-Mudurnu. He graduated from Gazi University Faculty of Pharmacy in 1974. He worked as a Pharmacist Intern at Paris Hospitals (Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris) in France between 1977-1985, and received his Clinical Biochemistry and Immunology Specialization and Biochemistry Doctorate degrees from the University of Paris. Between 1985 and 1992, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in the USA. In 1992, he became the Founding Director of the Molecular Oncology Laboratory at the Center Leon Berard Cancer Center in Lyon, France, and worked as INSERM Research Director at the same center between 1992-1995. In 1995, he was invited to Bilkent University as the Head of the Department to establish the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics; He continued this duty until 2007. During the same period (1997-2013), he worked as the Founding Director of Bilkent University BilGen Genetics and Biotechnology Center. Between 2007 and 2012, he worked simultaneously as INSERM Research Director at Institut Albert Bonniot in Grenoble, France. Between September 2013 and February 2018, he worked as the Founding Director of Izmir International Biomedicine and Genome Institute affiliated to Dokuz Eylul University. He transformed this institution into Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, which is Turkey's first national public research institution in the field of health, within the scope of Law No. 6550 in 2018, and managed this center until 2021.

Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öztürk is known for his translational research to understand the genetic and molecular characteristics of cancer, especially liver cancer. More than one hundred scientific articles have been published and over 10,000 references have been made to them. His H-Factor is 46. As a Pharmacist specializing in Molecular Biology, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öztürk has worked for many years for the production of biotechnological drugs based on gene engineering in our country.

Prof. Öztürk is a member of TÜBA, Academy of Sciences, EMBO and TWAS academies and is the recipient of the TÜBİTAK-TWAS Science Award and the Koç Foundation Health Award (as the founder of Bilkent MBG). He is married and he has two daughters.

Place of birth: Kırcaali. She earned her bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Istanbul University and completed her master's degree through the Erasmus Mundus program in Animal Breeding and Genetics at AgroParisTech and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). She completed her PhD in the Department of Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Bioengineering at Sabancı University’s Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, continued her postdoctoral research there, and later worked at Eutropics Pharmaceuticals Inc. focusing on hybridoma technology and antibody research.

She joined Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öztürk’s team in 2020 and continues her work on the development and production of monoclonal antibodies. She currently serves as a Assistant Professor in the Medical Laboratory Techniques program at Izmir Tınaztepe University.

  Dr. Saidu SANI is a lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry at Alex-Ekwueme Federal Ndufu Alike University (Ebonyi, Nigeria). Born in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Dr. Sani has an impressive academic background. He earned a National Diploma in Science Laboratory Technology with Distinction from Federal Polytechnic Bida, followed by a B.Tech in Biochemistry with First Class Honors and an M.Tech in Biochemistry, both from Federal University of Technology, Minna.

He completed his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Strasbourg, France, where his research investigated the roles of α5β1 integrin and p53 signaling pathways in glioblastoma resistance to Temozolomide. In 2024, Dr. Sani received the 2216-B TÜBİTAK-TWAS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and currently continues his postdoctoral research at the Galen Research Center on the project “Targeting EPH Receptors in Cancer Using Recombinant Fusion Proteins.”

His place of birth is Düzce. He received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Ege University and his master’s degree in Biotechnology from Izmir Institute of Technology. He left Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences while continuing his PhD in Molecular Biology, Genetics and Bioengineering. He joined Mehmet Öztürk's team in 2018. He carries out DNA and protein-based biotechnological R&D studies in the laboratory.

She was born in Ankara. After completing her undergraduate studies in Biology at Kırıkkale University, she obtained her master’s degree in the Department of Pathology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. During this period, she gained experience in the Histopathology unit of a central research laboratory. She gained her first work experience as a Laboratory Supervisor in the wet laboratories of the Faculty of Engineering at İzmir University of Economics. In 2018, she joined the Öztürk Lab at the İzmir Biomedical and Genome Center as a researcher and continues as the laboratory supervisor in Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öztürk’s team. She is involved in histopathology studies. In 2024, she started working as a Lecturer in the Department of Pathology Techniques at İzmir Tınaztepe University, School of Health Services.

  She completed her undergraduate education at Ege University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biochemistry with a Biotechnology option, and her master’s and doctoral studies at Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Pharmacology. During her undergraduate studies, she worked on controlled drug delivery systems, and in her master’s and doctoral research, she focused on behavioral models in experimental animals and medical treatments for central nervous system disorders.

In 2024, she joined Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öztürk’s team at the Galen Research Center, where she continues her molecular biology-based research on therapeutic strategies using recombinant protein technologies.

   He completed his undergraduate and master’s education in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at İzmir Institute of Technology. He carried out his doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öztürk at Dokuz Eylül University’s İzmir International Biomedicine and Genome Institute, focusing on identifying new drug targets for liver cancer in the Molecular Biology and Genetics program.

As a researcher at the Galen Research Center, he participates in projects aimed at biotechnological drug design and the expression of designed recombinant proteins in mammalian cells, as well as the assessment of their efficacy. In 2024, he started his position as an Assistant Professor in the Medical Laboratory Techniques Department at İzmir Tınaztepe University, School of Health Sciences.

She completed her undergraduate education in Biology Teaching at Balıkesir University, Necatibey Faculty of Education, and her master’s degree in the Molecular Biology program at Celal Bayar University, Department of Biology. She carried out her doctoral studies at Ege University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Biology, within the scope of the YÖK 100/2000 Molecular Pharmacology and Drug Research program, focusing on determining the cellular effects of plant-derived bioactive molecules and drug combinations on pancreatic cancer, as well as their impact on gene expression levels in cancer-related signaling pathways. In February 2023, she joined Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öztürk’s team and currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Galen Research Center, participating in studies to determine the bioactivity of developed monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins.