Prof. Işıl AKSAN KURNAZ has received her BSc from Bogazici University, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, after which she did her PhD with Dr. Colin Goding in Marie Curie Research Institute, UK (closed down in 2010) and University of London, Institute of Cancer Research. Following her degree, she has worked as a lecturer in Bogazici University (1999-2000), and a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Andrew D. Sharrocks in University of Manchester (2000-2002). She was one of the two young assistant professors to be then recruited by Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey, so as to set up biotechnology and genetics laboratories as well as the Department of Genetics and Bioengineering in 2003. She continued to work there as a professor and principle investigator of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory (aka AxanLab, https://www.facebook.com/AxanLab) until 2014, when she relocated her laboratory to Gebze Institute of Technology (GYTE) in Kocaeli, Turkey. Prof. Kurnaz is the recipient of the L’Oreal Turkey Young Female Investigator Award (as a local counterpart of the international For Women in Science programme) in 2006, and the GEBIP Award (Genc Bilim Insanlarini Destekleme Programi / Distinguished Young Investigator Award) of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA) in 2007. She has also participated in the European Young Academy brainstorming meeting organized by ALLEA and ESF in Vienna, 2009. She has been involved in several international grants such as COST and FP7 Regpot projects, as well as many national grants from TUBITAK, Turkish Fight with Cancer Foundation, Brain Research Society – Lundbeck, Novartis among many others. She has published numerous papers, to which she has received over 500 citations, with a current h index of 9.