AIM and TARGET

A drug is a substance or combination of substances used or applied to correct, improve, or modify physiological functions with the aim of treating a pathological condition in living organisms or compensating for a deficiency necessary for life.
The Drug Design and Development Research Group was established on May 30, 2025, within the Near East University, DESAM Institute. The research team consists of Prof. Dr. H. Seda Vatansever (Group Leader), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emine Erdağ Haskoloğlu, Asst. Prof. Dr. Ayşe Seyer, Asst. Prof. Dr. Faika Başoğlu, and Asst. Prof. Dr. Burak Durmaz. The group brings together the fields of basic medical sciences and pharmaceutical chemistry, with the mission of contributing to all stages of in vitro and in vivo drug design and development processes.

While drug selection for different diseases is crucial, in addition to the use of existing drugs in personalized or disease-specific treatments, the group aims to design new drugs, discover molecules that could serve as potential drug candidates or compounds derived from natural sources, test drug candidates obtained through in vitro and in vivo studies, and apply computer-aided drug design techniques and modeling. Its main goal is to contribute to the pharmaceutical industry and promote the development of national and domestic drugs through collaborations.

In particular, the group aims to reveal the therapeutic potential of products through drug design and development studies, to conduct research on drug and disease targets as well as personalized treatment processes, and to provide education in these fields.

Researchers

Prof. Dr. H. Seda Vatansever graduated from Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Medicine in 1989. With a scholarship from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), she completed her PhD at the University of Liverpool, Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology between 1994 and 1997 while serving as a research assistant in the Department of Histology and Embryology at Manisa Celal Bayar University, Faculty of Medicine.
In 1998, she was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same department, became an Associate Professor in 2004, and achieved the title of Professor in 2011. She is still a faculty member of the Department of Histology and Embryology at Manisa Celal Bayar University, Faculty of Medicine.
Throughout her career, she has taken part in 120 national and/or international projects as a principal investigator or researcher. She actively supports young researchers by teaching the elective course “Scientific Studies in Turkey and Career Counseling” at Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Medicine. Additionally, she has supervised a total of 20 student projects supported by TÜBİTAK-2209.
She has authored 188 international articles, 172 of which were published in SCI/SCI-Expanded journals, and has presented over 250 papers at national and international conferences. She received the Celal Bayar University Annual Publication Performance Award in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014, the once-in-a-career Celal Bayar University Scientific Award in the Health Field in 2014, and a Citation Award in the same year. She has also been awarded the Near East University Publication Performance Award in 2022, 2023, and 2024, as well as the 2024 Research Award. In total, she has received 47 awards including for papers, posters, and TÜBA recognitions.
With a Royal Society-TÜBİTAK scholarship, she spent one month at the Manchester Stem Cell Laboratory. As part of a BAP project, she participated in a human embryonic stem cell certification program at CHOC Hospital in California. In August 2012, with the support of YÖK, she attended a 1.5-month program at Harvard Medical School focusing on cancer immunology.
She continued her work at the University of Minnesota in 2018 and 2020. Her fields of interest include stem cells and their clinical applications, embryonic and mesenchymal stem cell culture and differentiation, cancer biology, personalized medicine, cell death, new strategies on cancer treatment, analysis of extracellular vesicles, especially exosome, in addition oocyte culture, and in vitro fertilization techniques. Her research focuses on cell culture methods, histological and molecular techniques.
Between 2022–2025, Prof. H. Seda Vatansever served as a member of the TÜBİTAK-SBAG Advisory Board. She is a founding member and current president of the Cell Death Research Association. A founding member and board member of the Near East University Experimental Health Sciences Research (DESAM) Institute, and continues to actively serve as the BAP Coordinator at Near East University.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emine Erdağ Haskoloğlu is a faculty member at the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Near East University. She completed both her undergraduate and doctoral studies at the same faculty. Her research focuses on drug design, synthesis, and in silico approaches targeting neurological disorders, cancer, and infectious diseases.
Her studies encompass innovative topics such as melatonin biology in neurodegenerative diseases, circadian rhythm–drug interactions, cytotoxic effects of benzoxazolone derivatives, COVID-19 and immune-targeted vaccine adjuvants, and photosensitive drug design. She integrates molecular modeling, pharmacophore analysis, ADME predictions, and target-oriented drug discovery through interdisciplinary methodologies.
Dr. Erdağ Haskoloğlu’s research has been published in reputable journals such as Molecules, Chronobiology International, ChemistrySelect, Current Alzheimer Research, and Anti-Cancer Agents in Medicinal Chemistry. According to Google Scholar, her h-index is 6, with 117 total citations and an i10-index of 3.
Her 2022 and 2023 works, particularly on the relationship between COVID-19 and melatonin, have drawn significant attention, while in 2024, she authored multiple publications on Alzheimer’s disease and immune-related molecular dynamics analyses.
Dr. Erdağ Haskoloğlu actively collaborates across disciplines with researchers from Gazi University, Manisa Celal Bayar University, Eastern Mediterranean University, and various international institutions. She also teaches Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Drug Design, and Molecular Modeling at undergraduate and graduate levels.

Assit. Prof. Ayşe Seyer was born in 1986 in Bostancı, Güzelyurt. She graduated from Güzelyurt Turk Maarif College in 2003 and from the Ankara University, Biology department in 2007. She joinedmaster's degree programme in the Department of Medical Microbiology, Gazi University, Faculty of Medicine, in 2007. During her graduate studies, she worked in the medical mycology laboratory and conducted research in this field. She successfully completed her thesis on fungal siderophores (Candida and Aspergillus genus) and the 'sid' gene and she graduated in 2009. In the same year, she was accepted as a FEMS (Federation of European Microbiological Societies) fellow at the Università degli Studi di Siena (Siena University Faculty of Medicine, Italy), where she conducted studies on antimicrobial, biocide, and disinfectant resistance of bacteria and medically important fungi. Between 2009 and 2010, she assigned as a researcher on the "BIOHYPO - Confronting the clinical relevance of biocide-induced antibiotic resistance" project, which was founded by TUBITAK, as a TUBITAK 7th Framework Project. She started PhD at the Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Microbiology and continued her studies at the Near East University Faculty of Medicine Department of Medical and Clinical Microbiology. She completed PhD in 2016. Her research interests include medical mycology, vector-borne diseases, medical entomology, and parasitology. She is involved in international collaborations with research groups in Europe.

Assit. Prof. Burak Durmaz is a faculty member at the Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Near East University. He completed his doctoral studies through projects focused on enzyme purification and food enrichment in the context of natural products and cosmetics, uncovering significant findings regarding the anticancer effects and biochemical mechanisms of natural compounds. Throughout his master’s and PhD studies, he was supported by prestigious national scholarships, including YÖK 100/2000 and TÜBİTAK 2211-A.
During his advanced training in analytical techniques at the University of Barcelona, he focused on histamine and diamine oxidase (DAO), developing innovative approaches for purifying DAO from plant sources and reducing histamine levels in fermented foods. This work resulted in a patent application and earned him an award for innovative research.
His primary research interests include neuroinflammation, microglial activation, oxidative stress, histamine biochemistry, DAO enzyme activity, and the therapeutic potential of natural products. He conducts interdisciplinary projects particularly centered on cell culture, enzyme purification, biomarker analysis, and the formulation of biochemically active compounds from natural sources.
Dr. Durmaz has authored over 20 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals, including Scientific Reports, Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, and Frontiers in Pharmacology. He was selected as an IFCC grant recipient and presented his work at the EuroMedLab Congress. He currently serves as the Turkish representative of the DAO Research Institute.
With his recent projects focusing on the therapeutic potential of DAO in neurodegenerative diseases, Dr. Durmaz actively engages in international collaborations with research groups in the United States, Spain, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Additionally, he contributes to the development of young scientists through educational events and training programs in cell culture, natural product biochemistry, and biochemical education.

Assit. Prof. Faika Başoğlu is a faculty member in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy, Near East University. She completed her PhD at Istanbul University, where she focused on the synthesis and biological evaluation of imidazo[2,1-b]thiazole derivatives, resulting in the development of novel compounds with promising anticancer and antimicrobial properties.
During her research stay at the University of Florida, she worked on the discovery of antibacterial drugs, gaining valuable experience with small molecules that target biofilm eradication. Her research interests include the design of small molecule drugs for cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and bacterial infections. Dr. Başoğlu undertakes interdisciplinary projects that combine computational drug design, organic synthesis, characterization techniques, and biological activity assessments.
Her work has been published in numerous high-impact journals, including International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, Chemical Biology & Drug Design, Pharmaceuticals, and Molecular Diversity. She holds an h-index of 7 with over 140 citations. She is the principal investigator of a national TÜBİTAK 1001 project and a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the Turkish Association of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry (TURKMEDCHEM).
Dr. Başoğlu stands out for integrating synthetic and in silico techniques in preclinical drug research. She is involved in international collaborations with research groups in Norway, the United States, Japan, Belgium, and Italy, contributing to co-authored publications in the field of drug discovery.