A. Nazlı Basak, PhD, research director and senior lecturer at the Koç University, earned her BSc and MSc degrees from the University of Göttingen, and completed her postgraduate training in molecular biology and genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, Germany.

Dr. Basak’s career started with the establishment of DNA techniques used in the early detection and prevention of hereditary blood disorders for the first time in Turkey. Under her direction, the Neurodegeneration Research Laboratory (NDAL) established at the Bogaziçi University  in 2005, and since June 2018 moved to the Koç University Medical School, played a major role in introducing a comprehensive nation-wide system for the screening, prenatal diagnosis and eradication of β-thalassemia, based on DNA analysis.

Dr. Basak’s current research agenda focuses on complex multifactorial disease genetics. She specifically works on neurodegenerative disorders, with a special emphasis on ALS, dominant/recessive ataxias, HD and PD and the cellular mechanisms involved in selective neuron degeneration. Dr. Basak serves as a permanent board member in various scientific associations and academic institutions. She also sits on the advisory board of the Turkish Ministry of Health. Since July 2005, Dr. Basak has been the Head of the Neurodegeneration Research Laboratory (NDAL). Scientific collaboration protocols have been between Bogaziçi University, represented by NDAL, and the Neurosciences Department of Brown University. Important collaboration partners of NDAL are the Neurosciences Department of Brown University, Harvard University and University of Massachusetts Medical Schools. Since Juny 2018 the lab has moved to the Koç University Medical School.