Principal Investigator / Scientist
Ayça Arslan
Ayça Arslan was born in 1979 in Çanakkale, Biga. She graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. She earned her MSc degree from Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Basic Hepatology department, and did Ph.D. in Bilkent University Molecular Biology and Genetics department, on liver cancer and cellular senescence. In Scotland, Glasgow, she worked on cell-targeted therapies. For five years, she worked at Bilkent University as a postdoc in Michelle Adams Lab, on brain aging and new cell formations and teaching for the Neuroscience program. Between 2017 and 2020, she worked at Hacettepe University. She started working at UNAM in 2020. She is running the “Friends, let’s do science” project as a volunteer. She is the recipient of Sabancı Foundation Change Makers Award and Science Academy Young Investigator Award (BAGEP). She is living with gang of furry kids.
Graduate Students
Bora Deniz Yılmaz 
Ceren Aydoğan 
Almina Düzen 
Sena Dedeoğlu 
Melis Karaca
Ceren Aydoğan
MSc Student
Ceren graduated from Middle East Technical University Biology department and recently started her MSc at UNAM. She is interested in aging, neuroscience and stem cells. She enjoys reading, baking and spending time with her dog in her free time.
Bora Deniz Yılmaz
MSc Student
Bora received his B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in 2024, and started his MSc at UNAM in Arslan-Ergul Lab. He likes eating crax and drinking energy drinks, especially monster. In his free time, he likes to create digital art, graffiti, playing video games playing guitar and spending time with his cat, Shiva.
Almina Düzen
MSc Student
Almina received her B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Istanbul University in 2024, and started her MSc at UNAM in Arslan-Ergul Lab. She completed her undergraduate thesis on glioblastoma cells. She is interested in neurodegenerative diseases and neurogenesis. She enjoys cultural sightseeing, cooking and watching movies in her free times.
Sena Dedeoğlu
MSc Student
Sena graduated from the Department of Biology at Middle East Technical University in 2024 and started her MSc in the Neuroscience program at Bilkent University. Initially studying the mathematical modeling of orientation selectivity in vision under Hüseyin Boyacı, then she got bored of coding and joined Ayça Arslan lab at UNAM. Currently researching neurodegenerative diseases, she enjoys sleeping, playing guitar, and grabbing every cat she finds.
Melis Karaca
PhD Student
Melis graduated from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Istanbul Technical University in 2021. She is mainly interested in neurodegenerative diseases and aging. Her hobbies include singing, listening to Turkish classical music, practicing reformer pilates, swimming and spending time with her loved ones.
Alumni
Umutcan Kaan Bozan – MSc Student 
Ayşe Reyyan Kutan Başçı 
Elif Akış 
Elif Sena Temirci 
Tuba Sena Oğurlu 
Mariya Tulkibayeva 
Malavi Sengupta 
Naz Şerifoğlu 
Esra Şenol 
Nazlı Akıllı 
Özge Pelin Burhan 
Cansu Üstüner 
Begün Erbaba 
Bihter Muratoğlu 
Melis Temel 
Sunny Boncuk Ergül 
Rümeysa Taşpınar 
Elif Gülşen Kaya
Umutcan Kaan Bozan
Advisor: Ayça
Umutcan received his B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in 2023, and started his MSc at UNAM. He is interested in RNAi mechanisms and epigenetic inheritance on the model organism C. elegans. In his free time, he likes to discover new artists and songs, plays the ukulele, watches basketball and plays games.
He is now a PhD student in Liesbet Temmerman & William Schafer‘s Labs.
Ayşe Reyyan Kutan Başçı
Advisor: Ayça
Ayşe Reyyan Kutan received her B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in 2022, and started her MSc at UNAM. She is interested in neuroscience from molecular biology perspective and neuromodulator hormones. She enjoys watching animation, listening to music, reading and spending time with her loved ones.
Elif Akış
Advisor: Ayça
Elif received her B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from METU in 2018. She is interested in topics related to adult neurogenesis and neural stem cell therapies. She enjoys playing video games, reading, camping and spending time with her cat.
She is a scientist at Refgen Biotechnology
Tuba Sena Oğurlu
Advisor: Ayça
Tuba has graduated from Molecular Biology and Genetics department of Boğaziçi University in 2021 and now she is an MSN student at UNAM. In Arslan-Ergul Lab, she studies cell adhesion molecules and their effects on aging. Besides the TÜSEB project, she is interested in neuroscience, immunology and bioinformatics. Going on nature walks, painting and cooking are her favorite activities she does in her free time. Her ultimate goal is to make even a little contribution to science.
She is now a PhD student in Argyris Papantonis Lab
Elif Sena Temirci
Advisor: Ayça
Elif Sena graduated from Bilkent University Molecular Biology & Genetics Department and started her MSc at UNAM. She is interested in different model organisms, cell cycles, and bioinformatics. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies, listening to music and driving.
She is now a PhD student in Charlotte Aumeier Lab
Mariya Tulkibayeva
Advisor: Ayça
Mariya received her B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in 2025, and started her MSc at …
Malavi Sengupta
Advisor: Mehmet Somel, Can Alkan, Ayça
Malavi received her B.Sc. in 2012, and her M.Sc. in 2014. She completed her PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Ploen, in 2019. She is working on annotating the genome of the pearl mullet, and her co-advisor is Dr. Can Alkan. She is interested in how fish genome organisation changes over time in response to ecological pressures such as salinity or parasites. She also enjoys baking, crochet, and puns.
Now a post-doc at Uppsala University, Advisor: Patrick Jern
Naz Şerifoğlu
Advisor: Ayça & Michelle Adams
Naz received her BSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in 2016. She is currently an MSc student in the Neuroscience program at Bilkent University. Her research focuses on telomere regulation in brain cancers. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, reading novels and spending time with her cat.
Naz is currently a lab manager in Moyon Lab
Özge Pelin Burhan
Advisor: Ayça & Michelle Adams
Özge Pelin Burhan received her M.Sc. in Neuroscience in 2017 and her B.Sc. in Molecular Biology and Genetics in 2015 from Bilkent University. Currently, she is a Ph.D. student at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich/German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases. She is working on the pathomechanisms of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in zebrafish. In her spare time, she likes swimming and reading.
Özge is currently a PhD student in Bettina Schmid Lab.
Esra Şenol
Advisor: Ayça
Esra received her BS in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in 2017. She has been awarded SINGA scholarship and now she is a Ph.D. student in the National University of Singapore. She is doing her research with Dr. Fu in Singapore Bioimaging Consortium. She is currently working on neural circuits that regulate feeding behavior. Under Arslan-Ergul’s supervision, she worked on the characterization of neural stem cells. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and traveling.
Esra is currently a post-doc at Veiga-Fernandes Lab
Nazlı Akıllı
Advisor: Ayça
Nazlı received her B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in 2017. During her undergraduate studies, under Ayça Arslan-Ergül’s supervision, she worked on the comparative characterization of neural stem cells from Zebrafish in the process of aging. She did her masters in Biology at LMU Munich. She enjoys photography and swimming.
Nazlı is now a PhD student in Giacamo Cavalli Lab.
Cansu Üstüner
Advisor: Ayça
Cansu completed her B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics at METU (Turkey) in 2019 and gained an M.Sc. degree in Molecular and Translational Neuroscience at Ulm University (Germany) in 2022. She was a part of Arslan-Ergül lab during the first half of 2019, focusing on cloning and transformation in the context of aging brain. Currently, Cansu works as a Technical Assistant and Lab Manager of Ito Lab at the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research, working on goal-directed navigation in rats using optogenetics and fiber photometry. She describes herself as a wanderlust and she likes Latin dances as well as Japanese culture and language.
She is now a technical assistant at Hiroshi Ito Lab
Begün Erbaba
Advisor: Michelle Adams & Ayça
She is now a post-doc in Chet Sherwood Lab
Bihter Muratoğlu
Advisor: Duygu Uçkan Çetinkaya & Ayça
She is now a post-doc in Cansu Özdemir Lab
Melis Temel
Advisor: Duygu Uçkan Çetinkaya & Ayça
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Rümeysa Taşpınar
Advisor: Michelle Adams & Ayça
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Elif Gülşen Kaya
Advisor: Ayça
Elif received her B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in 2026 and completed her senior thesis in the Ayça Arslan Lab. She is interested in developmental biology and neuroscience. In her free time, she likes to read books, bake desserts and play video games.
Sunny Boncuk Ergül
Boncuk was born on 19 Jan 2010 in a small village called Shotts, near Glasgow, Scotland. She started her education in the rainy days of Glasgow, observing small creatures in the grass. After moving to Turkey in 2012, she majored in moths and grasshoppers. She obtained her Professorship in dissecting the grasshopper body parts. She enjoys mild cream cheese, lactose-free milk, and sleeping.
