About


CELLBIOTECH LAB RESEARCH GROUP


Assoc. Dr. Rabia Çakır Koç's Cellbiotech Lab is a research group located in the Cell Culture and Vaccine Laboratory of Yildiz Technical University Bioengineering Department. Cellbiotech Lab focuses on vaccine research, development of drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, and in vitro cell culture studies. MSc. and Ph.D. students currently carry out their projects and thesis studies in the Cellbiotech Lab. The main research areas are:  

  • Investigation of cytotoxic effects of therapeutics on cancer cell lines

  • Assessment of antiparasitic activity of various samples 

  • In vitro biocompatibility assessment of biomaterials, small drug molecules, and herbal extracts, In vitro modeling of neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases 

  • Development of drug-resistant cancer models and discovery of novel therapeutic candidates against multidrug resistance

  • In vitro protein and antibody production 

  • Synthesis and characterization of nanoparticle/microparticle-based drug delivery systems 

  • Production and characterization of tissue scaffolds and wound dressing materials

  • Evaluation of in vitro wound healing and cell-scaffold interactions

  • Development of novel vaccine formulations and investigation of their efficacy on experimental animal models and  in vitro using various techniques


Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rabia ÇAKIR KOÇ

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rabia Çakır Koç, the founder of Cellbiotech Lab Research Group in Cell Culture and Vaccine Laboratory at Yildiz Technical University, Department of Bioengineering, is graduated from Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Biological Sciences in 2006. She completed her Ph.D. studies on vaccine development at Yildiz Technical University Bioengineering Department in 2012. In 2013, she started her academic career at Yeni Yüzyıl University Biomedical Engineering Department. Assoc. Dr. Rabia Çakır Koç is continuing her academic studies at Yildiz Technical University Bioengineering Department since 2014 and she is also the Deputy Vice President of the Presidency of Turkish Health Institutes (TÜSEB) and the President of the Turkish Biotechnology Institute (TBE).

She’s worked on vaccine studies, antibody therapies, and cell culture studies. In recent years, her research has focused on the development of vaccine formulations against infectious diseases, treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and in vitro disease modeling. Together with the Cellbiotech Lab Research Group, she continues to work on vaccine studies, examining cell-biomaterial interactions for tissue engineering, and cytotoxicity, anticancer and neuroprotectivity studies in cellular models. She developed new adjuvant systems and peptide-based nano and micro-sized vaccine formulations against infections, which are among the few studies in the literature. She has made innovative contributions and studies to the field of biotechnology with the new generation vaccine formulations and antibody techniques she has developed for the treatment and diagnosis of infectious diseases.

Zeynep KARAVELİOĞLU, Ph.D. Candidate

She completed her undergraduate education in the Department of Bioengineering at Fırat University and joined the Cellbiotech Laboratory for her graduate education. During her master’s education; she specialized in cell culture, nano/microparticle drug delivery systems, and biomaterial characterization techniques. Other techniques in which she gained competence during her graduate education are cytotoxicity tests, nanotoxicology, in vitro anticancer studies, determination of neuroprotective activity, determination of antioxidant activity, primary cell culture, antibody isolation, and ELISA. During her graduate education, she took part in projects such as TÜBİTAK 1001 and TÜBİTAK 3001. The subject of the master's thesis is "Synthesis, Characterization and Investigation of Neuroprotective Activities of Chitosan Nanoparticles Containing Ginkgo biloba Extract". Zeynep Karavelioğlu, who started her doctoral education as a 100/2000 YÖK doctoral scholar, also took part in a TÜBİTAK 1003 project. In her doctoral thesis; She works on the development of core-shell nanoparticle formulations based on natural polymers against neuronal aging and the determination of their activity on 2D and 3D cell culture systems.

Bahar ASLAN POLAT, Ph.D. Candidate

She completed her undergraduate education at Hacettepe University- Biology department in 2013. She started her master's studies in Hacettepe University Bioengineering Department in 2013. After completing her thesis on “Preparation of Polymeric and Decellularized Matrices for cornea Tissue Engineering”, she received her master's degree in 2016. She joined Cellbiotech Lab Research Group in 2016 as a doctoral student. Continuing her doctoral education as a 100/2000 YÖK doctoral scholarship student, Bahar Aslan Polat also took part in TÜBİTAK projects. “Development of Rapid Diagnostic Kit by Peptide-Specific IgY Antibody-Based Immunochromatography Method for the Diagnosis of Influenza A Infection (M2e)”, TÜBİTAK 1003-Priority Areas R&D Projects Support Program. (15.10.2015-15.10.2017)" and Tubitak 1001 project "Development and Production of Point of Care Test Kit for Diagnosis of Occult Blood ". She was also a fellow in the study "Preparation of Decellularized Matrices with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide for Corneal Tissue Engineering" accepted by Hacettepe University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit. She is still continuing her doctorate education. The subject of her doctoral thesis is “Production of Injectable Scaffolds and Encapsulated Cell Immobilization for Cartilage Tissue Engineering”. Work in this area continues. During her Master's and Ph.D. studies, she has specialized in Tissue Engineering, Cell culture, Electrospinning, Supercritical, Cell encapsulation, Decellularization, Recellularization, Nanoparticle, Biomaterials and Cell and tissue staining.

Burcu ÖZKAN, Ph.D. Candidate

She completed her B.Sc. studies in Yıldız Technical University, Department of Chemical Engineering in 2015, with his dissertation titled "Hydrophobic and Antibacterial Coating" (2014-2015 Spring). She also completed her M.Sc. studies in 2017 in the Bioengineering Department of the same university with the thesis titled "Preparation, Characterization and In Vitro Evaluation of Topical Nanoemulsions for Hypopigmentation Problem" (2016-2017 Fall). She still continues her Ph.D. education in the same department at Cellbiotech Lab. During her M.Sc. education; She took part in the project "Development of Anti-Aging Nanoemulsions of Various Vegetable Oils and Honey Produced in Our Country" (January 2015-January 2016) within the scope of TÜBİTAK 1512 Entrepreneurship Progressive Support Project and in the project "Development and Characterization of Nanoemulsion Formulations Using Various Herbal Extracts Produced in Our Country for Hyperpigmentation Problem" (March 2016-March 2017) within the scope of KOSGEB Research-Development, Innovation and Industrial Application Support Program at Unipharma Cosmetics Research Development Company as an R&D engineer. In addition, during postgraduate education she has also been involved in projects titled “Development of Rapid Diagnostic Kit by Peptide-Specific IgY Antibody-Based Immunochromatography Method for the Diagnosis of Influenza A Infection (M2e)”, TÜBİTAK 1003-Priority Areas R&D Projects Support Program (15.10.2015-28.12.2018) and a project as a continuation of the master's thesis "Preparation, Characterization and In Vitro Efficiency Evaluation of Piperine Nanoemulsions for the Treatment of Vitiligo Disease", GEP project, (09/06/2017-10/06/2019). At the same time, she worked as an R&D Analyst in the R&D Department at Abdi İbrahim Pharmaceutical Industry and Trade Inc. In this time, she carried out studies on the determination of drug active substances, quantification, impurity and stability analyzes, method development and analytical validations with GC, UPLC and HPLC. Afterwards since 2020 at Medpa Biotechnology Co. within the scope of TÜBİTAK 1511-SAB-TANI-2017-2, she takes part in the R&D Project titled Biochemical Blood Count Diagnostic Kits and 5 DIFF Blood Count Device Development and also KOSGEB Covid-19 Biotechnological Rapid Diagnosis Test Kit Development Project within the scope of Innovation Support Program.

Development and characterization of novel and nanotechnological drug delivery systems, quantification, impurity and stability analyzes in UPLC and HPLC systems, method development and analytical validation studies, recombinant protein production in mammalian cells, purification techniques and characterization, development of blood count device and biochemical diagnostic kit in the field of hematology, the development of rapid diagnostic test kits are among her study areas.

Rabia YILMAZ, Ph.D. Std.

She completed her B.Sc. studies in the Department of Bioengineering at Uskudar University in 2018. She continued her M.Sc. studies on the investigation of the anticancer activities of therapeutic substances developed with nanoparticle formulation with various experimental methods in the Department of Bioengineering at Yıldız Technical University in 2021. During her graduate education, she took part in the TÜBİTAK 3001 project. She continues her Ph.D. research on the development of drug resistance in cancer cells and the development of therapeutic agents for drug resistance in the Cellbiotech Lab. Her research topics focus on vaccine formulation development and in vivo and in vitro examination of effectiveness, nanoparticle/microparticle delivery systems and drug resistance in cancer. Currently, she works at the Biotechnology Institute of the Turkish Health Institutes (TÜSEB).


Betül MUTLU,  Ph.D. Candidate

She completed her undergraduate education in Yildiz Technical University Bioengineering Department in 2015 and her master's degree in Bursa Technical University Biotechnology Department in 2019. She continues her doctorate education with YOK 100/2000 project/Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Scholarship in Yıldız Technical University Bioengineering Department. She also has a Tübitak 2211-A National PhD Scholarship. In her master's thesis, she worked on the fabrication and characterization of scaffolds using a microfluidic system. She conducts her doctoral studies on neural tissue engineering. Her research topics are mainly biomaterials and tissue engineering, biomaterial-cell interactions, biopolymers and hydrogels, in vitro mammalian cell culture, anticancer activity studies, bioactive wound dressing materials and micro / nanoparticular systems.

Hatice Feyzan AY, Ph.D. Std.

She completed her undergraduate education at Ege University Engineering Faculty Bioengineering Department in 2019 and her master's degree at Yıldız Technical University Bioengineering Department in 2022. Currently, she started her Ph.D at Yıldız Technical University Bioengineering Department and continues her studies at Cellbiotech Lab. Her research topics are generally in vitro anticancer and neuroprotectivity studies and nanoparticle carrier systems.

Hilal ÇALIK, M.Sc. Std.

She completed her B.Sc. education in Yildiz Technical University Bioengineering Department in 2018. She joined the Cellbiotech Lab Research Group in 2019. She is currently pursuing her master’s studies on in vitro modeling of metabolic diseases and investigation of therapeutic substances’ activities using various experimental methodologies in the Bioengineering Department at Yildiz Technical University. During her graduate education, she was entitled to be a TUBITAK 2210-C scholar, and her master thesis is supported by the BAP graduate project. In vitro diseases modeling, in vitro protein and antibody production, synthesis of polymeric and magnetic nanoparticle delivery systems, drug resistance in cancer, and investigation of anticancer, antiparasitic, and antiobesity activities of various active substances are some of her research interests. She continues her academic career as a Research Assistant in the Department of Bioengineering at Yildiz Technical University.

Tuğçe Kan, M.Sc. Std.

She completed her B.Sc. education in Yıldız Technical University Bioengineering (English) Department in 2020. During her undergraduate education, she worked as a scholarship student in the project 'Determination of the most effective and fastest clinical treatment method of SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro mono and co-culture supported by TUBITAK - Trainee Researcher Scholarship Program (STAR). In 2020, she started her master's degree in Yıldız Technical University, Department of Bioengineering. She joined the CellBioTech Laboratory Research Group in 2021 and was entitled to receive support from the BAP graduate projects program with her master's thesis topic. She continues her studies in the field of bone tissue engineering within the scope of her master's thesis studies. Currently, she continues to work as project personnel at the Presidency of Turkish Health Institutes (TÜSEB), Turkey Biotechnology Institute.