I first enrolled in the Biology Department of Hacettepe University, followed by joining the Masters program in the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department of Bogazici University. The aim was to identify novel genes/mutations in neurodegenerative disorders using whole genome and exome sequencing methods.

In 2020, I finished my PhD in Computational Biology at EMBL, Heidelberg, which was followed by a short postdoctoral position. During my time at EMBL, I gained a lot of experience in both experimental and computational methods. For example, I developed a microbiome-based kit for colorectal cancer screening. I also analysed shotgun metagenomics and 16S rRNA sequencing data of different human microbiomes including gut, saliva and tissue. Computationally, I established different machine learning models for early detection of different diseases such as colon and pancreas cancers. In 2021, I joined the Saez-Rodriguez Lab at Heidelberg University Institute of Computational Biomedicine. I am currently working on unraveling the complex interactions between the host and microbiome at different levels in order to understand the underlying mechanisms of these interactions and translate this knowledge to the diagnostic and/ or therapeutic field.