Hacettepe University (HU) is one of the largest universities in Turkey with 25,800 students and 3,479 academic staff. The university has participated in several projects under the EU’s Framework Programmes. The university has 13 faculties, 9 schools, 1 conservatory, 13 institutes, 35 research and application centers. Department of Pediatrics has its own research institute so called Institute of Child Health where there are 7 independent research labs for different sub-specialities (i.e. medical genetics, inborn errors of metabolism, allergy, immunology, hematology and stem cell, infectious diseases and nephrogenetics lab). All research labs and core facilities are accessible in collaborative basis and are fully equipped with the state-of-the-art technology (some of them are next generation sequencing platforms (Roche FLX and GS Junior), Genetic Analyzer 3130 (Applied Biosystems), Microarrays (Agilent and Affymetrix), RT-PCR systems, cytogenetic analyses, confocal microscopy, cell culture facilities etc.). PTPRO, ALX1, ALX4 and PLEC1 are some of important genes that have recently been identified in HU. In Turkey, consanguinity rate is extremely high. As a tertiary center and a proven scientific background, HU accumulates rare disorders in its constitution more frequent than seen in general population. This gives an invaluable opportunity for the researchers who deal with hereditary diseases.

Nephrogenetics lab at Hacettepe University is leaded by Prof. Fatih Ozaltin, who has completed postdoctoral fellowship on gene mapping and positional cloning techniques in Friedhelm Hildebrandt’s lab in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. He is founder and director of nephrogenetics lab in HU, which is unique in this area in Turkey. Working in a large university hospital with centre for rare disease, established clinical network and databases, biorepositories, large molecular genetics facilities with full access to other core facilities for biobanking, mapping, laboratory animals, cell biology and imaging give him an invaluable opportunity to find novel genes.

Emine Korkmaz, PhD is an expert in clinical cytology and is interested in modern molecular biological techniques and cell culture. She is an expert in Sanger and next generation sequencing as well as expression and in vitro functional studies.  

Ekim Taskiran, PhD is an expert in next generation sequencing including data analyses and functional genomics