Prof. Dr. Remziye YILMAZ
Hacettepe University (HU), Food Engineering Department, Beytepe Campus, 06800, Ankara, Turkey
Associate Chair of HU International Food Biosafety and Biotechnology R&E Center
E-mail: remziye@hacettepe.edu.tr
General areas of expertise:
Molecular Food Microbiology, Food Biotechnology
Education:
B.S., Ankara University, Department of Food Science and Technology
M.Sc., Hacettepe University, Food Engineering Department
Ph.D., Hacettepe University, Food Engineering Department
Biography:
Dr. Remziye Yılmaz received her Ph.D. from the Hacettepe University, Food Engineering Department in 2002 where her research focus was molecular identification and characterization of Lactic Acid Bacteria. Between 2002-2005, she founded and worked at the first molecular biology laboratory on the detection and quantification genetically modified crops at the Ankara Food Control Laboratory, Ministry of Agriculture. In 2005, she received a postdoctoral position from Middle East Technical University (METU), Molecular Biology and Biotechnology R&D Center. From 2005-2015, she conducted research as a head of the Genome Analysis Laboratory at the METU (Ankara), where her research contributed to the understanding of the functional genomics and genetically modified organisms including microorganisms. In 2006, short term, she moved to Wageningen University & Research, where she was a Prof. Dr. Leo De Graff Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Fungal Genomics. During this time, she expanded her research interests to focus on the functional genomics of plants such as wheat and barley, using the microarray analysis model.
In 2015, she accepted a position at Hacettepe University as an Associate Professor. At the same year she awarded with Borlaug Fellowship at the Michigan State University (MSU), Food Toxicology and Molecular Biology Department. Her mentor was Robert Hollingworth and David Mota-Sanchez from MSU. Since 2015, her laboratory at the Hacettepe University has worked to identify food microorganisms from Anatolia via molecular microbiological techniques; to develop new methods, proficiency tests and reference materials to analyses GMOs; and to use probiotics for functional foods. In parallel to these studies, research in her laboratory has also expanded into the area of DNA-nanosensor technology for the detection of microorganisms and GMOs. Since 2017, Dr. Yılmaz also serves as the Associate Chair for International Food Biosafety and Biotechnology R&E Center.
Thanks to high-throughput foodomics approach, Dr. Yılmaz’s laboratory and research area are now facing the possibility for the exploitation of food science and human health with new projects such as “Development of a New Approach for Determining the Change in Genetically Modified Maize Flour Profile using Transcriptomics, Metabolomics and Lipidomics”, “Shotgun Metagenomic Analysis of Microbial Composition of Tarhana and White Cheese” and “Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Local Wheat Varieties (Triticum spp.) and Effects of Zinc Treatment”.