Academic Members

Dr. İlknur Dursun earned her PhD in Biological Sciences from Middle East Technical University (METU) in 2011, after completing her Master’s degree at the same institution in 2005. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Ankara University, awarded in 2000. Dr. Dursun has built a diverse academic career, beginning as a Research and Teaching Assistant at METU (2002–2011) and later serving as an Assistant Professor at Üsküdar University (2012–2016), Altınbaş University (2016–2020), and currently at İstinye University, where she has been a faculty member since 2020. As a faculty member in İstinye University’s Faculty of Medicine, Department of Physiology, she continues her investigations into the effects of toxin exposure, particularly ethanol, on brain development and behavior during the perinatal period (prenatal and postnatal). Her research utilizes experimental animal models to study teratogenic effects using neonatal intubation techniques in newborn mice. Throughout her career, Dr. Dursun has gained substantial international research experience. In 2005, she conducted research at Louisiana State University Health Science Center, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy. She also held visiting scholar positions at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior & Center for Neuroscience from 2007 to 2009. Most recently, she completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at UC Davis’s Department of Molecular Bioscience in the School of Veterinary Medicine (2021–2023). Dr. Dursun's research focuses on neurodevelopment and neurotoxicology, with a particular emphasis on the effects of prenatal and postnatal alcohol exposure on brain structure and function. Dr. Dursun’s expertise encompasses a broad array of behavioral experiments, including learning and memory, anxiety, depression, and locomotor activity tests. In addition to her behavioral research, Dr. Dursun performs quantitative neuroanatomical analyses on brain tissue using advanced immunohistochemistry techniques and high-resolution imaging systems such as StereoInvestigator and Neurolucida software. Dr. Dursun’s research has been published in leading journals, contributing significantly to the fields of developmental neurobiology, behavioral neuroscience, and toxicology.