The ECM provides structural support, separates cells at tissue interfaces, and provides cellular signaling through cell-matrix connections such as focal adhesions. In this regard, the extracellular matrix (ECM) is one of the main important functional and structural roles in tissues and influences cell morphology, movement, functions, and even cell fate. ECM can be mimicked in vitro by engineered 3D tissue platforms with novel hydrogels to ensure accurate information for drug screening and diagnostic platforms. Biophysical experiments (laser stimulation, optogenetic, etc) can be successfully optimized into these platforms. It is also possible that co-cultivation of different cells and biophysical experiments can be designed in vitro.

About the Speaker:

Emel Sokullu is a Physics Engineer who graduated from Istanbul Technical University, with an M.Sc. degree in Materials Science & Engineering from Izmir Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering at Ege University. She did her postdoctoral study at Harvard Medical School & M.I.T. Health Sciences and Technology Program on brain tissue engineering. During her Ph.D. study, she has specifically focused on "Neural cell attachment on biodegradable polymeric surfaces for large patterned neural arrays" which is a joint project of Ege University Engineering & Medical Faculties and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She has awarded by TUBITAK (Science & Technology Council of TURKEY) with a scholarship during her Ph.D. study and after she went to Boston USA for her postdoc study in Harvard Medical School /MIT joint institute Health Science and Technologies Program with Brigham and Women's Hospital. She has joined to Leaders of Innovation Fellowship program run out by the Royal Academy of Engineering in London UK and she has been granted several awards for her commercialization projects from TTGV, Acıbadem Kuluçka Merkezi, etc. In September 2019, she has joined to Koç University Medical Faculty Biophysics Department and Koç University Translational Medicine Research Laboratory. She is a member of the Society for Neuroscience (SFN), FENS (Federation of Neuroscience Societies in Europe), Turkish Biophysics Society and IEEE.

The seminar will be held on 19 April 2022, Tuesday, 13.00 – 14.00.

Please click here to join.