"Synthetic Biology for Therapeutics" by TÜBA GEBİP Member Assoc. Prof. Şeker
“Synthetic Biology for Therapeutics - Engineering Cells for Living Drugs” edited by TÜBA GEBİP Member Assoc. Prof. Urartu Özgür Şafak Şeker was published by DeGruyter Publishing House.
The book covers the latest developments in cellular therapies, including engineered microbial therapies, CAR-T therapies, etc. from the perspective of synthetic biology and serves as a guide for scientists in both biotechnology and medicine.
Dr. Şeker, a faculty member at Bilkent University, said in a statement that they prepared the book together with their research group students Nazlıcan Tunç, Senem Şen, Derin Akman, Doğuş Akboğa, Recep Erdem Ahan, Ece Avcı, Damla Albayrak, Gozeel Binthe, Asli Semerci, Merve Yavuz, Melis Karaca, Mehmet Emin Bakar, Tolga Tarkan Olmez and Burak Çalışkan and said, “We dedicate ”Synthetic Biology for Therapeutics: Engineering Cells for Living Drugs', to the 100th anniversary of the Republic and its one and only leader, the great Atatürk, all of which were written by members of our research group. The book presents what has been done and what can be done with Synthetic Biology, from microbial therapeutics to Car-T cellular therapies. We are not only describing these, we are also trying our best to do it in Türkiye.”
Who is Assoc. Prof. Urartu Özgür Şafak Şeker?
Born in 1978. In 2001, he graduated from Hacettepe University, Department of Food Engineering. In 2009, he completed his PhD studies at Istanbul Technical University (ITU), Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and University of Washington, Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Nanyang Technology University, Singapore between 2010 and 2011, and at the Research Laboratory for Electronics (RLE) and Synthetic Biology Research Center (MIT Synthetic Biology Center) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 2011 and 2014. In 2014, he was promoted to assistant professor and in 2019 to associate professor. In 2014, he received the TÜBA GEBİP Award. Currently, Assoc. Prof. Urartu Özgür Şafak Şeker continues his research on synthetic biology, genome engineering and nanobiotechnology at Bilkent University, UNAM and Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology.