Oktay I. Kaplan

Oktay I Kaplan has recently started to work as a researcher/lecturer at the Department of Medicine in Istanbul Medeniyet University, Istanbul, Turkey. Kaplan traveled to Dublin to perform his PhD at University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland under the supervision of Dr. Oliver Blacque and received his Ph.D in Genetics from University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland in 2011. In 2012, he joined the Tursun Lab, Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology (BIMSB), Max Delbrück Center (MDC), Berlin, Germany to carry out his postdoctoral studies and was subsequently awarded both an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship and Helmholtz Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2012. His scientific activity focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of direct cell reprogramming employing a combination of genetic, and cell biological methods in Caenorhabditis elegans. His recent work involves the use of C. elegans to explore the molecular aspects of decision making. C. elegans is an excellent model system to test a number of conserved genes that are predicted to be involved in decision making. This research may contribute to the understanding of decision making in the nervous system.

October 2016