Dr. Ece Öztürk received her BSc in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Koç University in 2009. She then completed her MSc in (2011) and PhD (2017) in Biomedical Engineering at ETH Zurich. In her graduate studies, she worked on therapeutic DNA delivery via polymeric nanoparticles for treatment of diabetic ulcers. Then through her PhD work, she focused on cartilage tissue engineering and developed biomimetic materials for chondrocyte implantation and cartilage regeneration. She worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University between 2017-2020 where she conducted studies on biomimetic tumor models, metastasis and lung tissue engineering. She joined Koç University, School of Medicine as faculty in 2020 where her current research direction involves lung tumors, tumor bioengineering, tissue communication and metastasis.

Selected publications:

Öztürk E, Arlov Ø, Aksel S, Li L, Ornitz DM, Skjak-Brak G, and Zenobi-Wong M. Sulfated hydrogel matrices direct mitogenicity and maintenance of chondrocyte phenotype through activation of FGF signaling. Advanced Functional Materials. 2016; 26: 3649-3662.

Öztürk E, Despot-Slade E, Pichler M, Rottmar M, and Zenobi-Wong M. RhoA activation and nuclearization negatively regulates chondrogenic phenotype with context-dependent crosstalk with Wnt signaling. Experimental Cell Research. 2017; 360: 113-124.

Öztürk E, Hobiger S, Despot-Slade E, and Zenobi-Wong M. Hypoxic regulation of RhoA and Wnt signaling controls re-differentiation of chondrocytes. Scientific Reports. 2017; 7:9032.