Education

MSc in Molecular Biosciences

Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg & German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)

2021-ongoing

Graduation Date: March 2024
Grade: 1.2/5.0 in German system
Key Courses Taken:
- Molecular Mechanisms of Cancer
- Tumor Immunology and Tumor Virology
Elective lab practicals:
- HP-F9 Cancer Genomics & Proteomics
- HP-F11 Tumor Heterogeneity and Proteomics

BSc in Molecular Biology & Genetics

Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

2017-2021

Graduated with Summa Cum Laude distinction
Grade: 3.79/4.00 in American system
Awarded as the Valedictorian of the Science Faculty 2021
Key Courses Taken:
- Molecular Genetics
- Genomics
- Bioinformatics
- Statistical Methodology
- Introduction to Programming in Python
- Introduction to Human Genetics
- Genetics and Biology of Cancer

Erasmus Exchange Semester in BSc Biology

Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands

2019-2020 Spring Semester

Key Courses Taken:
- Comparative Genomics
- Cell Biophysics
- Cell Biology

Research Experience

Master Thesis

DKFZ, Chromatin Networks Division

July 2023 - March 2024

Evaluated and compared computational techniques for processing and integrating a large-scale, clinical, and longitudinal CITE-seq dataset of the multiple myeloma tumor microenvironment. Generated a Nextflow based pipeline for quality control of the dataset

Graduate Internship

DKFZ, Chromatin Networks Division

February 2023 - May 2023

Explored transcriptional bursting kinetics of human umbilical vein endothelial cells using scRNA-seq. Compared the performance of bursting kinetics inference models on both droplet-based and plate-based scRNA-seq datasets, used nfcore/rnaseq to align plate-based scRNA-seq reads

Graduate Internship

DKFZ, Cancer Epigenomics Division

November 2022 - January 2023

Investigated cell of origin in lung adenocarcinoma by studying RNA-velocity and directed single cell fate mapping

Graduate Internship

DKFZ, Molecular Genome Analysis Division

August 2022 - October 2022

Inspected the tumor-predictive and prognostic potential of the differential miRNA arm expressions in breast cancer

Bachelor Thesis

Bilkent University, Konu Lab

January 2021 - June 2021

Investigated the transcriptional mechanisms behind the resistance to aromatase inhibitors in breast cancer by using bulk-RNA sequencing data

Work Experience

HiWi Job

DKFZ @Career and Alumni Service

May 2023 - Jan 2024

Participated in the improvement of the career development platform CareerCheck
- Analyzed DKFZ alumni surveys to integrate information into the resources of CareerCheck
- Created Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) documents
Skills Applied: R Programming, LIME Survey, LaTeX, Matomo Analytics

Tutor

Bilkent University On-Campus Student Employment

Sep 2019 -- May 2021

Tutored and proctored the courses and during 2019 Fall and 2021 Spring Semesters
- Introduction to Python Programming (CS115)
- Introduction to Data Analysis in Python (CS125)