|
Success Of Turkish Scientist
A Turkish scientist has received "Marie Curie Excellence Award."
Associate Professor Batu Erman of Sabanci University became the first Turkish researcher honored with the award -- that has been granted since 2003 to give public recognition to outstanding past achievements of scientists who have reached a level of exceptional excellence in their given field.
Erman received the award with his work on "Molecular Biological Targeting of T Lymphocyte Signal Transduction and Development." His work focuses on the receptors that control the development, survival and function of T lymphocytes known as "killer T-cells." When the signals go wrong, the cells survive and proliferate, resulting in diseases of the immune system.
Associate Professor Erman had a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology in a university in New York, and did his PhD at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, before heading to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to do his postdoctoral work. In 2004, after 17 years in the United States, Erman returned to Turkey, to take up a position at Sabanci University in Istanbul.
"Our molecular biology research on T lymphocytes can be characterized as basic research with a view to developing drugs that target immunodeficiency diseases, lymphomas and leukaemia," he told.
"Our aim is to find novel components of signal transduction pathways which can become targets for drugs," he also said.
(BRC)
|
