Hale Yapıcı Eser, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

Hale Yapıcı was born in Istanbul in 1984. She graduated from Ankara Atatürk Anatolian High School in 2002 and from Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in 2008. She completed her psychiatry specialty training in Psychiatry Department of Gazi University Faculty of Medicine between 2008-2013. At the same time, she started her Ph.D. program in Neuroscience under the MD-PhD program of Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine between 2006-2013 and was awarded the title of PhD. Between July 2013 and September 2015, she worked as a psychiatric specialist at Çankırı State Hospital on the grounds of state obligatory service. She conducted research at Copenhagen University’s Institute of Biological Psychiatry in 2011, the Department of Psychotic Disorders at Harvard University’s Mc Lean Hospital in 2012 and at the same university in the center of depression, anxiety and stress research in 2016. She has been a psychiatry specialist at the Koç University Hospital since October 2015 and faculty member at the Koç University Faculty of Medicine. She is one of the coordinators of Koç University Neuroscience PhD program and clinical director of Koç University Hospital Department of Psychiatry. As the principal investigator of SMCL lab, her research mainly focuses on the effects of acute and chronic stressors on the cognitive functions and reward systems. This research requires focusing on both neurodegerative diseases as Parkinson’s disease,  other disorders as obesity, in addition to anxiety disorders and mood disorders.

Candan Yasemin Eren

Post-doctoral Researcher

I completed my B.S. at New York University, double majoring in neuroscience and psychology. During my undergraduate years, I worked in various research laboratories both in the US and Europe focusing on memory mechanisms, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. After graduating, I was a research assistant at NYU Langone Medical Center working under the supervision of Eric Klann, investigating the relationship between sleep and memory consolidation on animal models. I am currently a neuroscience Ph.D. student at Koc University Medical School. My research focuses on how stress affects neurobiology of brain networks and molecular signaling pathways involved in different psychiatric disorders.

Büşra İzgi  Ağca

PhD  Candidate in Neuroscience

Cansel Işıklı

PhD  Candidate in Neuroscience

Cansel has stuided Chemistry (BSc) and Biomedical Engineering (MSc) at Middle East Technical University. She has focused on Tissue Engineering and Biomaterial development in her master study. She has been working in Research and Development area to transform medical device ideas into final products in EU and US markets for several years. She has gained deep experience in medical device development, related international regulations, design verification and validation activities such as pre-clinical testing, animal and clinical trials. Currently, she is PhD student at Neuroscience department and studies relationship among interoception, potential stress reduction activities and central nervous system.

Muhammed Ballı

PhD  Candidate in Neuroscience

Ardıl Bayram Şahin                                                     

PhD  Candidate in Neuroscience

I have graduated from Istanbul University, Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, English Medicine Program. I have completed my psychiatry specialty training at Istanbul University, Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry.  I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in Neuroscience at Koç University, Graduate School of Health Science.  Currently, I work as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in my own private practice.

Berkan Bozkurt 

MSc Candidate in Neuroscience

I took my bachelors from Koç University with Chemistry and Psychology. In my undergraduate education, I found a chance to discover different research fields of chemistry, both inorganic chemistry (under supervision of Prof. Dr. Mehmet Somer) and organic chemistry under supervision of (Asst. Prof. Safacan Kolemen). On top of this, I experienced pharmacological and defence industry applications of chemistry during my internships. Eventually, I decided to follow my childhood dream, translational neuroscience. Currently, I am particularly interested in the neurobiological basis of stress, mood disorders, and suicide and seeking for developing therapeutic agents and biomarkers for more effective treatment. My ultimate aim is to be one of the new generation innovative, productive, impactful neuroscience leaders.

Current Research Assistants (Koç University School of Medicine Students)

Miraç Nur Musaoğlu

I am a last-year medical student at Koç University School of Medicine. I participated in research projects from various areas, including biomedical engineering, molecular biology and telemedicine. Last year, I was awarded TUBITAK Star Scholarship for the project investigating the impact of stress on psychopathologies in patients with copy number variations. Currently, I contribute to the same project and am interested in neurobiological mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders.

Görkem Ayas

I have graduated from Ankara Science High School in 2017. Currently, I am an undergraduate student of medicine in Koç Üniversitesi and an undergraduate student of health administration in Anadolu University. After having the great chance of working with venerable professors – Serçin Karahüseyinoğlu, MD in Histology and Embryology Lab / Mert Erkan, MD in Surgery Lab . I am now committed to forensic psychiatry with Hale Yapıcı Eser, MD, PhD in stress-mood- cognition; Vedat Şar, MD in dissociative identities; and A. Coşkun Yorulmaz, MD, PhD in medicolegal and forensics topics.

Alihan Dursun

I am a junior student at Koç University School of Medicine. With a great curiosity in neuroscience, neuropsychology, and psychiatry, I am doing a double major in Psychology. Thus far, as an undergraduate research assistant, I took part in different studies on neurophysiology, cognitive functions, and decision-making mechanisms. Besides, I have been a member of the European Medical Students ‘Association and IFMSA for 4 years to advocate and discuss global healthcare management and medical students’ ideas. Through these organizations, I have developed myself in soft skills. In addition to public health-related activity plans, I want to be a clinical researcher in the field of neuropsychology and to work in international communities in an interdisciplinary manner.

Elif Aslı Özer

I graduated from Kabataş Erkek High School in 2020 and started studying medicine in Koç University. In my second year in the university, I started the double major program in psychology and the track program in cognitive & brain sciences. I have been working as an undergraduate research assistant in Stress, Mood and Cognition Laboratory and Koç University Research in Applied Memory since 2021.

Yusuf Hüseyin Berrak

I graduated from Hatay Science High School in 2019, then I started studying medicine in Koç University. I have always been interested in cognitive and neuroscience, so I am also studying on Cognitive and Brain Sciences track program. In 2021, I started working in Stress, Mood and Cognition Laboratory as an undergraduate research assistant.

Graduate Students

Yasemin Kuvvet

MSc in Neuroscience

“I have graduated from  Molecular Biology and Genetics undergraduate program of Middle East Technical University (ODTU) with honor degree. I am currently honor student in Business Administration program of Anadolu University. During university, I worked in different labs to learn different subjects. During my summer practice besides Assoc. Prof. Arzu Çelik’s FlyLab, I noticed neuroscience is my passion. So, currently I am a PhD candidate in Neuroscience program at Koç University at Dr. Hale Yapıcı Eser’s Lab. My main study focus is role of stress in mitochondrial related neurodegeneration in PD. ”

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