Tayfun Ozcelik

Dr. Özçelik graduated from İstanbul University, İstanbul Medical School in 1986. He completed his postdoctoral work in physiology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, and in human genetics at the Yale University School of Medicine and at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine. He returned to Turkey in 1992 as assistant professor and founding head of the Department of Genetics at DETAM, Istanbul University. In 1995, he joined the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bilkent University. He was named associate professor in 1994 and professor in 2004. He was appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Science in 2012. His research focuses on inherited phenotypes in humans. He contributed to the mapping of genes to human and mouse chromosomes, and identified SNRPN in Prader-Willi syndrome, PMP22 in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease Type IA, PHKA2 in X-linked liver glycogenesis, MLH1 in MLH1-deficiency, VLDLR & WDR81 & ATP8A2 in cerebellar hypoplasia associated with quadrupedal gait in humans, HTRA2 in Parkinson’s disease and essential tremors, and RAD21 in chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. He introduced DNA-based individual identification to the Turkish judiciary system and also led diagnostic genetics laboratories both at Istanbul and Bilkent Universities. Currently, he works on the complex phenotypes of obesity and polycystic ovarian syndrome in collaboration with Rockefeller University. Dr. Özçelik is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences serving as a councilor, board member and education committee chair of the European Society of Human Genetics, program committee member of the American Society of Human Genetics, and past-president of the Turkish Society of Medical Genetics. He received the TÜBİTAK Young investigator Award in 1996, Bayındır Medical Award in 2006, and TÜBİTAK Science Award in 2012.