NAME
Zehra Sayers
ADDRESS
Sabancı University
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
Orhanlı, 81474 Tuzla-Istanbul, Turkey
Tel No.: ++90-216 483 9509
Fax No.: ++90-216 483 9550
e-mail: zehra@sabanciuniv.edu.tr
Born September 25, 1953
NATIONALITY
Turkish and British
EDUCATION AND TITLES
1970-1974 B.Sc. in Physics. Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey.
1974-1978 Ph.D. in Biophysics. Guy's Hospital Medical School, University of London, UK.
Title of Ph.D. thesis "Random Walk Behaviour of Amoeba
proteus in Response to Electric Fields and Other Stimuli."
1983 "Doçent" (Associate professor) in Biophysics. Istanbul University, Turkey.
1996 "Habilitation", qualification for full professorship in Germany.
Faculty of Chemistry, Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology, University of Hamburg, Germany. Title of
Habilitationsschrift, "Strukturuntersuchungen von Makromolekularen Biologischen
Aggregaten."
APPOINTMENTS
1978-1982 Post-doctoral research fellow at the Open University Oxford Research Unit,
Biophysics Group, UK.
1982-1984 Post doctoral research fellow at the Cell Motility Group, Wallenberg Laboratory, University of
Uppsala, Sweden.
1984-1993 Staff scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Hamburg Outstation,
Germany.
1993- 2000 Consultant to the Director at Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (TUBITAK)
Marmara Research Center (MRC) Gebze, Turkey.
1993-1995 Scientist, GKSS Forschungszentrum Geesthacht, Gemany.
Visiting scientist at the EMBL Hamburg Outstation, Germany
1996-1998 Scientist at the EMBL Hamburg Outstation, Germany.
Faculty, Sabancı University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Istanbul, Turkey.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
1985-1989 Consultant to establish a Biophysics Department in the Faculty of Medicine of Marmara
University, Istanbul, Turkey. Visiting professor, Marmara University Medical Faculty, Istanbul,
Turkey.
1993-1998 Teaching at the Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Chemistry,
University of Hamburg.
1995- 2000 Delegate to the International Centre for Cooperation in Bioinformatics (ICCB), Weizmann
Institute, Israel.
1993- 2000 Coordinator for National Bioinformatics activities at TUBITAK MAM Research Center, Gebze,
Turkey. Chair, Scientific Committee of the Synchrotron-light for Expeerimental Science and
Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) Project.
FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
1982-1984 Post-doctoral fellowship from the Natural Sciences Research Council, Sweden.
1982-1983 Travel fellowship, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).
1985-1989 "Transfer of Know-How Through Expatriate Nationals" (TOKTEN) grant from the United Nations.
This grant was received to establish a Biophysics Department
in the Faculty of Medicine, Marmara
University, Istanbul and
to give biophysics lectures until permanent staff were appointed.
1996.1998 Grant from the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (TUBITAK) to organize an
international summer school at Bilkent University,
Ankara: "Structural Investigation of Biological
Macromolecules and New
Perspectives in Biotechnology" .
1997 UNESCO grant for cooperation between Israel and Turkey in Bioinformatics.
1996.1999 TUBITAK UNISTAR grant for organization of “International Bioinformatics
Training Course” at
TÜBİTAK, MRC, Gebze, Turkey.
1998 -Jülich Research Center – TUBITAK Bilateral Grant for research on G-protein subunit structure.
2001 UNESCO and TÜBİTAK grants for organization 'Bioinformatics and Structural
Modeling Workshop' at
Sabanci University, September 3-9, 2001
2002 Jülich Research Center – TUBITAK Bilateral Grant for research on wheat metallothionein structure.
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Turkish Biophysical
Society, Biophysical Society, American Society for Cell Biology.
RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS
The unifying theme of my research concerns probing the relationship between
the 3D structure and function of biological macromolecules. These studies
provide clues to fundamental processes in biological systems, help to predict
function from 3D structure and provide insights for engineering new systems.
I am specialised in various molecular biology techniques for overexpression
of recombinant proteins, protein purification and characterization methods
and X-ray scattering and diffraction techniques for 3D structure determination.
Our current projects focus on metal binding proteins, G-proteins from plants
and development of novel systems for immobilization of biological molecules
for functional assays.
Our collaborations include EMBL Outstaion in Hamburg Germany, Department
of Biological Sciences at Imperial College London, Biophysics Department
at Marmara University, Istanbul.
Over the years I have been contributed to establishing new areas of research
in Turkey such as bioinformatics and structural studies. Although I spent
all of my profesional life abroad,
since 1998 have been a foundig member of the Sabanci University. I helped
to establish the Biological Sciences and Bioengineering program and designed
and set up the laboratories there.
