Biography
I completed my PhD at the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey). During my studies I worked on various aspects of plant molecular biology and biotechnology including gene cloning, expression profiling and plant genetic transformation.
After graduating, I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Palacky University (Olomouc, Czech Republic). My research focused on production of antimicrobial peptides in plant tissues for novel biotech approaches in medicine and agriculture.
Before joining the Patron Group at EI, I worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida, US), where I investigated the efficiency of targeted gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9 in sugarcane and barley.
At EI, since June 2019, I have been working on nitrogen transcriptional regulatory network in Arabidopsis. I am using CRISPR/Cas9 mediated gene knockout or gene editing to dissect dynamics of regulation and to understand interactions between transcription factors and cis-regulatory elements critical in the plant nitrogen network.