Basic Medical Sciences
Akademic Staff
HISTORY
The history of the Department of Physiology of the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine dates back to the foundation of the military medical school, composed of “Tıphane” and “Cerrahhaneyi Amire” by Sultan Mahmut the Second at 14 March 1827. In this school, the name of which was changed into “Mekteb-i Tıbbiyeyi Şahane” in 1838, Physiology lectures were part of the second year’s curriculum. Dr. Şakir Selim (Şakir Paşa), who went to Paris to work with Claude Bernard, upon return made important contribution to the foundation and development of the modern Physiology education in the country. Şakir Paşa, who wrote a book titled “Dürusu Hayatı Beşeriye”, served as the head of the department between 1840 and 1903. This duty was then taken over by Kemal Cenap Berksoy for the period between 1903 and 1933, a student of Şakir Paşa. Prof. Dr. Berksoy carried out research in the areas of secretin, gastro-intestinal reflexes, cardiovascular physiology, and he wrote laboratory manuals and textbooks in Physiology.
Following the 1933 university reform performed by Ataturk, the institution, which took the name “Istanbul University” as the first and single university in Turkey, showed a rapid progress with the contributions of the foreign scientists, who immigrated to Turkey. With the arrival of Prof. Dr. Hans Winterstein, the Department of Physiology was divided into two departments, Human Physiology and General Physiology, and Prof. Dr. Kemal Cenap Berksoy became the head of the Human Physiology and Prof. Dr. Hans Winterstein became the head of General Physiology. Following the retirement of Prof. Dr. Berksoy in 1947, the two departments were reunited under the Institute for Physiology, and Prof. Dr. Winterstein became the head of the institute. Prof. Dr. Hans Winterstein focused his studies on the “Chemical Regulation of Respiration” and gained international recognition with his “Reaction Theory”.
After Prof. Dr. Winterstein’s retirement in 1953, Ord. Prof. Dr. Sadi Irmak became the head of the Physiology Institute, who apart from his impressive teaching, research and textbooks, was also an important figure in the Turkish political life. Ord. Prof. Dr. Sadi Irmak, who also held office as prime minister for some time, founded the Ataturk Principles and Revolutions Research Institute at Istanbul University and worked at this Institute after his retirement in 1974 until the end of his life. In 2005, his name was lend to the building for basic medical sciences at Istanbul Faculty of Medicine.
Nuran Gökhan was elected the head of the Physiology Department as the successor of Prof. Irmak, and she held office until 1991. Apart from taking part in internationally recognised studies of Respiratory Physiology supporting Prof Winterstein’s Reaction Theory, Prof. Dr. Nuran Gökhan published books on Human Physiology and carried the responsibility for the regular publishing of Journal of the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine for a long while. Prof. Dr. Nuran Gökhan, who took part in the foundation of the Biophysics Department and served for a period as the head of the department, served also as vice dean of Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, vice director of the Institute for Health Sciences, and the head of the Turkish Society for Physiology. Later, Prof Dr Nuran Gökhan founded I.U. Electrophysiology Research and Application Center and was the director of the center until her retirement.
Prof Dr Hayrünnisa Çavuşoğlu was the head of the department between 1991 and 1993, until she retired. Prof Çavuşoğlu received her residency in Hematology in USA. Her research in Physiology was focused on erythropoetin synthesis.
In 1993, Prof. Dr. Abidin Kayserilioğlu was elected the head of the department and held office until 1999. Prof Dr Abidin Kayserilioğlu, who also served as the head of the Division for Basic Medical Sciences, focused on erythropoesis and haematopoesis and founded the tissue culture laboratory in the department. The Sports Physiology Research and Application Center founded in 1979 by Prof. Dr. Kayserilioğlu and headed by him until 1999 has been transformed into the Department for Sports Medicine in 1999.
Prof. Dr. Refik Yiğit, who was the head of the department between 1999 and 2005, worked on erythropoiesis, the regulatory hormone of the erythropoesis, the erythropoietin from renal and extrarenal sources, and erythrogenin. Prof Dr Refik Yiğit edited the Physiology textbook with the collaboration of the members of the department to the honor of the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.
The main research areas of Prof. Dr. Sacit Karamürsel, who was elected the head of the department in 2005 and held office until 2016, were cognitive electrophysiology, evoked potentials, intraoperative EEG and ECoG monitorization during neurosurgical operations, and EEG-neurofeedback.
On September 30, 2016, Prof. Dr. Fatma Aytül Uyar was elected as the Head of the Department. Prof. Uyar's main research areas are immunogenetics and population genetics.
MISSION
The mission of the Department of Physiology is to extend the students the basic medical knowledge and expertise required for the education of up-to-date medical doctors, who have strong knowledge on the basic functional mechanisms of the human body, are competent in producing new scientific knowledge and using existing scientific knowledge, can produce medical solutions by putting priority to the preventive medicine and public health, have high communication skills, respect ethical rules, universal human rights and the environment, and follow up the health problems and politics of the country.
VISION
The vision of the Department of Physiology is to build an educational and research environment, which provides a high level of professional satisfaction for the students, researchers, staff and lecturers, is preferred by the post-graduate and residency students due to the earned educational and research competencies, confers PhD and residency degrees widely accepted in the national and international scientific community, and is qualitatively continuously developing with the feedbacks collected from the partners and stakeholders.
EDUCATION
Undergraduate Education
In the Turkish and English Medicine (MD) programs of the Istanbul Faculty of Medicine, General Cellular Physiology courses are given in the 1st and 2nd semesters, while the physiological principles of the blood, cardiovascular, nervous, gastrointestinal, excretory, endocrine and genital systems are taught in the 3rd and 4th semesters. In addition, our Department also provides physiology courses for the Turkish and English Programs of the Faculties of Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing.
Graduate Education
The Department of Physiology, in addition to provide graduate education in the Residency Program for Physiology also gives Master of Scienc (MSc) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in Physiology under the umbrella of the Institute of Health Sciences that administrates the graduate health education at Istanbul University. Additionaly, the neurophysiologists of our Department, Prof. Dr. Nuran Gökhan, Prof. Dr. Sacit Karamürsel, Prof. Dr. Tamer Demiralp, Prof. Dr. Güher Saruhan-Direskeneli, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Kaya, Prof. Dr. Ümmühan İşoğlu-Alkaç and Prof. Dr. Müge Devrim-Üçok, took also part in the foundation and conduction of the MSc programs in Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences and the PhD program in Neurosciences at the Department of Neurosciences of the Aziz Sancar Institute for Experimental Medicine (AS-DETAE).
RESEARCH
Electro-Neuro-Physiology (ENM): This laboratory, which generally works on the analysis of brain electrical signals obtained from the human subjects by the non-invasive electroencephalographic (EEG) methods, performs in addition to the analysis of the brain responses associated with sensory stimuli or motor activities also electrophysiological measurements of cognitive processes. Within this framework, the event-related potentials (ERP) and oscillations (ERO) are extracted from the EEG and analyzed with advanced signal analysis methods. These methods that are used to investigate the neural circuits underlying the sensory, motor and cognitive processes when performed on healthy population, are also utilized in order to evaluate the sensory and cognitive deficits of the neurological and psychiatric patient groups.
Neuroimaging (I.U. Hulusi Behçet Life Sciences Research Laboratory, İÜ-HUBAL): The Neuroscience Section of the Hulusi Behçet Life Sciences Research Laboratory built at Istanbul University with the support of a project by the Ministry of Development in 2011, is headed by Prof. Dr. Tamer Demiralp from the Department of Physiology. Within the scope of this project, that aimed to administer the high-cost research infrastructures for health research within a central laboratory, a 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system started to operate for advanced neuroimaging studies in 2014. The neuroimaging facility, which has been used for the MSc and PhD theses from the Departments of Physiology and Neurosciences in addition to a number of residency theses carried out at the Neurology and Psychiatry Departments, serves in addition to Basic Neuroscience studies also to Clinical Neuroscience research performed in collaboration with the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry.
Neuroimmunology & Immunogenetics (NIMIG): Functional analysis of T and B cells in autoimmune diseases: Myasthenia gravis model and functional approaches to the genetic susceptibility of autoimmune diseases are the main topics.
SERVICES
Oligoclonal IgG Bands in CSF and serum (Immunoblotting with isoelectric focusing)
Acetylcholine Receptor Antibody (ELISA)
MuSK Antibody (ELISA)
e-mail: noroimmun@istanbul.edu.tr
Web: https://noroimmunogenetik.istanbul.edu.tr
The Department of Physiology played important roles in the foundation of the Turkish Society of Physiological Sciences (TFBD) and the Brain Research Society (BAD), and both societies have been headed by the members of our department for certain periods. Prof. Dr. Nuran Gökhan served as the head of the Turkish Society of Physiological Sciences between 1985 and 1991, and Prof. Dr. Ümmühan İşoğlu-Alkaç served as the head of the society between 2014 and 2017. The head of the Brain Research society was Prof. Dr. Sacit Karamürsel between 2009 and 2010 and Prof. Dr. Tamer Demiralp between 2017 and 2018.
CONTACT
Phone number: +90 212 414 22 52
Official Department Email address (itffizyoloji@istanbul.edu.tr)
Academic Staff
Brief history:
Department of Medical Biology
History
1967-1977 “Biology” was given place in PCB (Physics-Chemistry- Biology) programme schedule, limited to Zoology-Botanic area.
1977-1978 Istanbul Faculty of Medicine “Department of Pre-Medicine” was founded at Beyazıt Campus at previous morphology institute. The course was given by Prof. Dr. Türkan ERBENGİ, Biologist Filiz AYDIN in 1977, Biologist Mehmet GÜRTEKİN in 1978, and Biologist Gülay SÖNMEZ in 1980 respectively.
1981 Upon the decision taken by The Council of Higher Education (YOK) The Department of Medical Biology was founded and Prof. Dr. Türkan ERBENGİ, the chair of he Histology and Embryology Department was held liable for the Department of Medical Biology as well.
1982 Department of Medical Biology was relocated into Istanbul Faculty of Medicine Histology and Embryology Department. The department started to educate master and PhD students at the
1985 Assist. Prof. Dr. Mahmut ÇARİN joined the department of Medical Biology and launched the studies for tissue type assay tests in order to enable tissue and organ transplantation at the department.
1987 Our department started to take part in cadaveric kidney transplantation carried out at Istanbul Faculty of Medicine and still pursues this role.
1990 Our department played a pioneering role for launching pediatric bone marrow transplantation at the child clinic.
1991 Upon the retirement of Prof. Dr. Türkan ERBENGİ, Prof. Dr. Mahmut Çarin became the chair.
1992 With the opening of internal medicine hematology department bone marrow transplantation unit, our department started tissue type assay tests.
1999 EFI (European Federation for Immunogenetics) certified our serology and PCR laboratories carrying out tissue type assay test for organ and tissue transplantation as accredited laboratories.
1999 Our department enabled Medical Faculty of Istanbul - Bone Marrow Bank, which was the first in Turkey, to be established. .
2002 Prof. Dr. Deniz SARGIN and Prof. Dr. Sevgi KALAYOĞLU contributed to the marrow bone transplantation from the kindred less source which was the first in Turkey by finding the first donor.
Personnel:
Academic staff
Head of Department: Prof. Dr. Fatma SAVRAN OGUZ
Prof. Dr. Fatma SAVRAN OGUZ
Prof. Dr. Sacide PEHLIVAN
Prof. Dr. Çigdem KEKİK ÇINAR
Assoc. Prof. Selçuk DASDEMIR
Assoc. Prof Hayriye SENTURK CIFTCI
Assis. Prof. Sonay TEMURHAN
Lect. PhD Mediha SULEYMANOGLU
Lect. PhD Gozde OZTAN
Lect. PhD Ayse EROL
Research Assistant M.Sc Demet KIVANC
Service Staff
M.Sc. Biologist Yeliz ÖĞRET
Biologist Pelin KARAOĞLU
Biologist Binnaz OZCAN
Biologist Başak POLAT
Biologist Sibel A. KAŞKA
Biologist Aykut ÇELİK
Laborant Banu B TERZİ
Health Technician Ayşe SİNAZ
Technician Melek ERDOĞAN
Health tecnical staff (n:9)
Other Staff
Medical Secretary Ayşegül ÖZDEMİR
Secretary Mehtap ADAK
Secretary Fatma KARAKAYA
Serology Lab.:
Serology for HLA typing
CDC Cross Match
Luminex Anti-HLA Antibody
Flow Cytometry Cross Match
Molecular Lab.:
DNA Isolation
Sequencing for HLA typing
SSOP for HLA typing
SSP for HLA typing
STR-PCR for chimerism monitoring
Disease associated HLA typing (Behçet disease, Ankylosing spondylitis, Celiac disease).
Graduate and Medical Education
Graduate Education: Theoretical and practical Medical Biology and Genetics courses for students given by the academic staffs of Medical Biology Department. Additionally, our academic staffs are also responsible for giving courses related to Medical Biology and Genetics subjects includes theoretical and practical learning for the students year of Istanbul University Dentistry Faculty.
Post-graduation Education: Medical Biology Department of Medical Faculty of Istanbul has also Medical Biology and Immunology Master and PhD programmes. The academic staffs are responsible for giving lectures and courses to Master and PhD students. There is a journal club with the participation of academic staffs, master and PhD students. During last five years 3 PhD students graduated from our department and there are still 4 Master students and 18 PhD students in taking courses or thesis state.
Training curriculum for the residents
Our department takes place annual course preparation programme of Organ Transplantation Coordination Organization (Organ Nakli Koordinasyon Derneği). In long terms, we're aiming to perform a Transplantation Immunogenetics theoretical/practical method courses for suitable especially research and routine laboratory works mainly for graduation level individuals. In accordance with this purpose we organized "Cross-Match Techniques Course" between 27 and 31 May in 2013 with the coordination and participation of Blood Center from İstanbul University, Medical Faculty of Cerrahpaşa.
We, as a department, have performed HLA Serological and Molecular Tissue Typing Tests for quality and control programme of European Federation of Immunogenetics for Balkan States since 2004 and also contributed to perform international-attended Quality-Control Workshop.
Our Academic Staffs have also made a contribution as lecturer for Erasmus - Life Long Learning Programme since 2011.
Medical Biology Master Programme takes 2 years including rotations of Serology, PCR and Sequencing Laboratory rotation and PhD Programme takes 4 years including same rotations as well.
All academic staffs and graduation students particularly join seminars to discuss for several academic topics or seminars and the same group meet for the journal club bi weekly.
Resources for Training
In our meeting/seminar room at the Medical Biology Department has a favorable medical library for well-known and worthy for Immunology and Cell Biology topics both written in Turkish and English medical books, journals and textbooks. Plus, we have accesses to significant world-wide electronic libraries from our meeting/seminar room and each PC in our department. There is also a barcovision and PC to utilize during seminars.
In each rooms for staffs of the department there are personal computers, tables, chairs for researches and also couches for rest, lockers for keeping personal objects and washbasins.
Services
a) Routine Services
1. Tissue typing: Medical Biology laboratories separate donor and donees’ as class I and class II HLA tissue types in the cases of solid organ and bone marrow/stem cell transplantations on the basis of different methods presenting different results in low and high resolutions. In addition to this, HLA tissue types that seem to be connected with diseases such as Behçet, spondiloarthropathy are tested at our laboratories (Table I). These methods are used in Molecular and Serology Labs in our department.
2. Screening of Anti-HLA antibody: For patients suffering from renal failure and waiting for kidney transplantation, anti-HLA antibody screening and identification test are done before and after the transplantation regularly by using various techniques (Table 2). These techniques are performed in Serology Lab.
3. Cross-match test: It is done for patient who is planned to undergo transplantation from alive or cadaver source and donor candidates and it foresees the success of the operation. It is done thorough two different methods in Serology Lab. (Table 2).
4. Chimerism Analysis: It is used for engraftment surveillance after bone marrow/ stem cell transplantation (Table 3). It is performed and monitored by Molecular Lab.
Table 1. HLA tissue typing methods
Table 2. Anti-HLA and donor specific antibody test methods
| Test adı | CDC | LUMİNEX | Flow Cytometry |
| Anti-HLA antibody | Ö | Ö |
|
| Anti-HLA antibody |
| Ö |
|
| Anti-HLA antibody | Ö | Ö |
|
| Anti-HLA antibody |
| Ö |
|
| Cross-match | Ö |
| Ö |
Table 3. Other tests and techniques
| Name of the Test | Multipleks PCR |
| Chimerism | Ö |
b) Additional services
1. Istanbul Faculty of Medicine gives laboratory support to Bone Marrow Bank for all types of tissue typing tests.
2. Dr. Çiğdem KEKİK studying on Medical Biology in Department, carries out domestic and overseas carrier services on behalf of Medical Faculty of Istanbul in Bone Marrow Bank.
3. Dr. Çiğdem KEKİK is in charge of compiling and updating the TR Ministry of Health National Kidney Waiting List and also coordinating kidney transplantation procedure in Medical Faculty of Istanbul.
4. 13 staff of Medical Biology Department (research assistants, biologists, and technicians) are available for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for doing immunological tests during kidney transplantation from cadaveric source in Medical Faculty of Istanbul, Surgical Transplantation Unit.
5. Among Medical Biology Department academic members, Prof. Dr. Mahmut ÇARİN is the first delegated by EFI as an inspector to supervise HLA laboratories periodically. Prof. Dr. Fatma S. OĞUZ was also appointed as an inspector in 2008 and she is in charge of checking many HLA laboratories both in Turkey and abroad.
Specific Research and Service Areas
Transplantation Immunology
Genetic Diseases
HLA and relation between diseases
Population Studies
Conducted Certification Programs
In long terms, we would like to organize national academic-attended symposium and courses. With this aim we organize “HLA days” and bioinformatics course per year.
Our Academic Staffs have also made a contribution as lecturer for Erasmus - Life Long Learning Programme since 2011. With this manner,1 Professor, 3 master and 1 PhD students joined Life Learning Certification Program called “Classic and Modern Methods for Molecular Diagnostics in Human Pathology” in Universitatae Transilvania din Braşov.
The Number of Publication (last five years)
141 articles in SCI journals are published by Medical Biology academic staff in last five years (2017-2022).
Costs and revenues for residents
Training for all graduation and under graduation levels at the faculty is cost-free. External courses/congress and symposiums are usually sponsored.
Accreditation and Certificate Programmes
Accreditation by EFI
Medical Biology Department HLA tissue typing laboratories have been accredited by EFI (European Federation for Immunogenetics) since 1999. With fifteen years of accreditation experience, Medical Biology Department is the first laboratory in Turkey that was accredited by EFI. Many university and state hospitals in
Balkan External Proficiency Testing
Medical Biology Department has been charged with a duty to organize HLA quality control tests among the HLA labs in Turkey by Immunology Subcommittee of Health Ministry since 2004 and at the same time, has been charged with another duty to organize and perform HLA typings of EFI's 8th area external quality-control tests by EFI quality-control committee. In 2008, the quality-control tests, named Balkan External Proficiency Testing, which are conducted with these two separated committees that lead by the participations of both Turkey and EFI's 8th area firstly have been set out to perform in one exercise per each and 10 rounds were performed successfully so far.
Accreditation certification document:
Our Mission
To become a strict follower of Atatürk’s principles and revolutions, productive and creative department, to provide, certain and accurate solid organ and bone marrow/stem cell transplantation test results to the clinics by following the latest technologies on transplantation immunology, to share our experiences for these tests to be done accurately and sensitively in each HLA laboratory in our country are our primary missions as Medical Biology department since we started out in 1985.
Our Vision
With its connection with overseas laboratories thanks to accreditation by EFI, its experienced staff on transplantation, Medical Biology Department leads the way of many novelties in its field and strives to support research on Medical Biology and Transplantation Immunology by educating students at master and doctorate level and to become a modern, knowledge sharing participatory department that provides perfect education to its students.
Contact Information
Address: Istanbul University- Medical Faculty of Istanbul
Dean’s Building, Tissue Typing Laboratory, Ground Floor
Çapa/ISTANBUL TURKEY, 34093
Istanbul University- Medical Faculty of Istanbul
Esnaf Hospital, 3rd Floor, Beyazit Campus.
Telephone: 0212 414 20 00-32461, 32854, 12168
0212 635 11 68
Fax: 0212 635 11 68
E-mail: itftibbibiyoloji@istanbul.edu.tr