Affiliation: Istinye University

Dr. Furkan Ayaz has double majors in the fields of Molecular and Cellular Biology as well as Chemistry from Boğaziçi University in Turkey. He completed his PhD in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Programme of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. During his PhD, he conducted research on autoimmune diseases, immunology, and T-cell acute leukemia. He has been collaborating with chemists and material and polymer scientists for drug development in versatile diseases, including cancer, autoimmune, and inflammatory disorders. He has experience in animal models of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), EAE. His thesis studies focused on T helper cell polarization and macrophage function. He has an international patent as a drug candidate against MS. This is an exopolysaccharide isolated from Bacillus subtilis that prevented the development of EAE in mice.

Currently, Dr. Ayaz is working as a Professor at Istinye University. His publications focus on drug candidate immunomodulatory activities and how they affect the immune system cells and function. So far, he has completed projects on photodynamic cancer therapy agents, novel transfection reagents, novel immunomodulatory agents, novel adjuvant candidates, and biomaterials for tissue repair. His current studies focus on designing nanoparticle-based adjuvant candidates for vaccines and biotechnological products in different medical fields.

At Biruni University, he works in a cell culture laboratory, a molecular biology laboratory, and an animal laboratory to conduct experiments. The labs are equipped with flow cytometry, q-RT-PCR, ELISA and MTT plate readers, fluorescent microscope, and confocal microscope.