TÜBA-GEBİP Award Recipients Prof. Dr. Yusuf Baran and Assoc. Prof. Deniz Atasoy were presented with the ‘Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Award in Medicine’
2013 TÜBA-GEBİP Award recipient and Medipol University Medical Faculty Physiology Department Teaching Staff Member Assoc. Prof. Deniz Atasoy was presented with the ‘Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Incentive in Medicine Award’ and 2010 TÜBA-GEBİP Award recipient and Abdullah Gül University (AGÜ) Life and Nature Sciences Faculty, Molecular Biology Department Teaching Staff Member Prof. Dr. Yusuf Baran was presented the ‘Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Scientific Research Grant’.
As a result of evaluations by the ‘2015 Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Awards in Medicine’ Scientific Evaluation Committee comprised of TÜBA Principle Member Prof. Dr. Turgay Dalkara, Prof. Dr. Erdal Akalın, Prof. Dr. Atıf Akdaş, Prof. Dr. İsmail Hakkı Ayhan, Prof. Dr. Selim Badur, Prof. Dr. Atilla Hıncal, Prof. Dr. Şevket Ruacan and Prof. Dr. Tansu Salman under the chairmanship of TÜBA Honorary Member Prof. Dr. Emin Kansu, Hacettepe University Medical Faculty Neurology Department Teaching Staff Member Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ethem Murat Arsava also won the ‘Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Tıp Incentive in Medicine Award’. Also, as executives of the project, medical students Miray Nilüfer Cimşit from the Koç University Medical Faculty, Doğukan Koç from the Dokuz Eylül University Medical Faculty and Doğan Üren from the Marmara University Medical Faculty were deemed deserving of the Medical Students Project Award.
Eczacıbaşı Holding Board of Directors Chairman Bülent Eczacıbaşı, who spoke at the award ceremony held in the Medipol University on October 5 said that since 1959 to the present 32 Eczacıbaşı Medical Science Awards, 41 Eczacıbaşı Incentive in Medicine Awards and 176 works which have been documented in the most reputable journals of their fields have been provided with the necessary financial support in the scope of these grants.
The Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Awards in Medicine Scientific Evaluation Committee Chairman Prof. Dr. Emin Kansu said "We believe that this well rooted application started in 2002, which is the first example in its field of institutionalization, is the greatest encouragement to introduce our successful young medical students of the future to the world of science".
While memorable names of Turkish medicine like Ord. Prof. Dr. Hulusi Behçet, Dr. Refik Saydam, Ord. Prof. Dr. Tevfik Sağlam, Ord. Prof. Dr. Mazhar Osman Uzman, Ord. Prof. Dr. Akil Muhtar Özden, Prof. Dr. Muzaffer Aksoy and TÜBA Honorary Member Prof. Dr. Gazi Yaşargil were valued with the Republic Era Awards in Medicine for applications outside of the routine with this enterprise of over fifty years, TÜBA Honorary Member Prof. Dr. Münci Kalayoğlu was given the Eczacıbaşı Honor in Medicine Award.
The Eczacıbaşı Award in Medicine
This tradition of supporting scientific research and rewarding scientists to contribute to the advancement of medicine and pharmacology in our country was started in 1959 by Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı under the leadership of valued medical teachers Ord. Prof. Dr. Ekrem Şerif Egeli, Ord. Prof. Dr. Arif İsmet Çetingil, Ord. Prof. Dr. Muhiddin Erel, Prof. Dr. Reşat Garan, Prof. Dr. Sabih Oktay, Prof. Dr. Behiç Onul, Prof. Dr. Zafer Paykoç and Prof. Dr. Necmeddin Polvan.
Who is Prof. Dr. Yusuf Baran?
Prof. Dr. Yusuf Baran was born in Batman on December 11, 1977. He completed his elementary, middle and high school education in the Beşiri district of Batman. After graduating from the Dicle University Biology Teaching Department in 1998 he continued to get his master’s and doctorate degrees in 2002 and 2006 from the Middle Eastern Technical University (ODTÜ). During his doctorate work he worked as a guest researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina in the U.S. (2005 July-2006 February) with a special grant he received from the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and as a teaching staff member between 2007 and 2015 at the İzmir High Technology Institute Molecular Biology and Genetics Department.
Prof. Dr. Yusuf Baran has over 25 scientific research projects supported by various institutions, over 80 published scientific articles, over 200 notifications presented in national and international conferences and over 100 national and international awards. Some of these awards are as follows: The Middle Eastern Technical University “Thesis of the Year” award in 2007; the “Outstandingly Successful Young Scientist of the Year Award” by TÜBA in 2010; the “Scientist of the Year Award” from the Science Heroes Association in 2013; the “Young Scientist of the year 2013” award from the World Economic Forum; and the “Most Successful Person of Turkey in the Field of Scientific Leadership Award” from the International Young Leaders and Entrepreneurs Organization in 2013.
Prof. Dr. Baran also continues to be a member on the Global Young Academy Board of Directors, a founding member of the Developing Countries Engineering and Technology Academy, a member of the World Young Scientists Organization, the TÜBA Study Task Group, the TÜBA Young Scientists Humanitarian Program, the World Economic Forum Young Scientist of the Year Program and the Ministry of Health Vocational Diseases and Cancer Consultation Board.
Prof. Dr. Yusuf Baran has also been the Dean of the Abdullah Gül University (AGU) Life and Natural Sciences Faculty and President of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department since February of 2015.
Who is Assistant Assoc. Prof Dr. Deniz Atasoy kimdir?
Born in 1979 in Trabzon, Deniz Atasoy graduated from the Bilkent University Molecular Biology and Genetics Department in 2001. In the same year he moved to Dallas, U.S.A. and started his doctorate at the Texas University - Southwestern Medical Center. In 2007 he completed his doctorate under the joint consultation of 2013-Nobel Physiology and Medicine Award winner Prof. Thomas Südhof and Prof. Ege Kavalalı. Throughout his doctorate he conducted research on the molecular mechanisms that guide the formation and maturation of special connection points that enable communication between the brain and nerve cells called synapses. At the same time he helped create animal models of nervous system disorders like autism and Parkinson’s that have genetic factors in their etiology and to investigate the synaptic connection disorders in these models.
Dr. Atasoy did post-doctorate work in 2007-2013 in Washington at the HHMI-Janelia research center. Here he developed new techniques towards understanding the complex nerve networks in the brain and used these techniques to solve the structure and operation of nerve networks that control appetite. The research resulted in identifying new brain connections that play an important role in appetite control and the operation of these connections was examined in detail.
Dr. Atasoy, who has been continuing his research in the laboratory he established at the Istanbul Medipol University affiliated REMER Institution since 2014, has been studying the nervous system mechanisms of eating and metabolic disorders with the 6 assistants he has been advising. Dr. Atasoy has 19 different publications in international journals like Nature, Science and Cell, periodicals with great influence. A total of 2780 references have been made to these studies and the H-index is 16. Also Dr. Atasoy is the executive of two EU sourced projects which are from the Marie S. Curie Foundation and European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and three projects 1001, 3501 and 3001 that are TÜBİTAK sourced. A member of the Nerve Science Foundation since 2002, Dr. Atasoy won the 2013 TÜBA-GEBİP Award.
