"R&D Support Laboratories Support Project for Life Sciences SMEs Towards Global Competitiveness" of Boğaziçi University Life Sciences and Technologies Application and Research Center (Boğaziçi LifeSci) was introduced with the participation of the Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır.
Speaking at the launch of "Boğaziçi LifeSci", Boğaziçi University Life Sciences and Technologies Application and Research Center, Boğaziçi University Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Naci İnci said, “Our university assumes the role of the 'de facto' representative of Turkey's innovation ecosystem in Brussels. "Our university, which is determined to take its studies even further, has a comprehensive strategy from artificial intelligence to sustainable finance, started under the leadership of Boğaziçi LifeSci," he said. İnci stated that the Boğaziçi LifeSci center not only provides new scientific achievements on a universal scale to Turkey, but also makes significant contributions to the national health industry.
"R&D Support Laboratories Support Project for Life Sciences SMEs Towards Global Competitiveness" of Boğaziçi University Life Sciences and Technologies Application and Research Center (Boğaziçi LifeSci) was introduced with the participation of the Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır. Boğaziçi University Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Naci İnci, European Union (EU) Commission Member Responsible for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova and project coordinator Prof. Dr. Cengizhan Öztürk and center director Prof. Dr. At the meeting attended by Rana Sanyal, information was given about the work of Boğaziçi University Life Sciences and Technologies Application and Research Center (Boğaziçi LifeSci).
“Boğaziçi LifeSci has more than 20 international patents”
Speaking at the promotion held on the subject, Boğaziçi University Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Naci İnci; He stated that the Boğaziçi LifeSci center not only provides new scientific achievements on a universal scale to Turkey, but also makes significant contributions to the national health industry. Reminding that it is very important to ensure the sustainability of this center with national and international long-term supports, Rector Prof. Dr. Naci İnci said:
“Boğaziçi LifeSci, which produces world-class scientific research and has become an exemplary and pioneering center in many respects, consists of more than 13 academic members from 50 departments of our university, approximately 380 graduate students and 30 technical personnel. The center's working areas include many different topics such as micro and nano devices, molecular level imaging methods and analyses, robotic devices, materials for biosensing platforms, smart drug delivery systems, vaccine technologies, and algae food supplements. These studies provide new and original scientific achievements on a universal scale to our country and significant contributions to our health industry. One of the mentioned projects, called TEAMING, is the CHIRON-T2023 project applied within the scope of Horizon-Widera-01-Access-01-3-two-stage. The CHIRON-T3 project aims to significantly strengthen Turkey's R&D capacity in its focus area. This project has been designed as a complement and accelerator of the Boğaziçi University Targeted Treatment Technologies Center, which was born within the Boğaziçi University Life Sciences Center and planned to be established within the scope of Law No. 6550.”
“We are the only university represented in Brussels”
Rector Prof. shared the information that Boğaziçi University is the only higher education institution from Turkey represented in the European Union institutions in Brussels. Dr. İnci said, “We are the only Turkish university taking part in UniLion, which brings together the permanent representatives of universities to the European Union and operates in this field by opening Turkey's first innovation diplomacy unit. Boğaziçi University is the only university represented before the European Union institutions in Brussels, with the aim of strengthening scientific and technological foundations and increasing competitiveness, closely monitoring incentive mechanisms, and increasing scientific dialogue and cooperation. Thanks to all these steps, our university assumes the role of the 'de facto' representative of Turkey's innovation ecosystem in Brussels. "Our university, which is determined to take these studies even further, has a comprehensive strategy from artificial intelligence to sustainable finance, started under the leadership of Boğaziçi LifeSci, and a team established within our Technology Transfer Office that supports this strategy," he said.
“I believe that Boğaziçi LifeSci will produce Turcorn in the field of health”
Speaking at the introductory meeting of the project, Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır said, “By developing technologies that will contribute to the development of our country's health entrepreneurship ecosystem, it has created exemplary success stories with the development of academic entrepreneurship activities it supports. Prof. Dr. Rana Sanyal and his team developed our country's first drug candidate, with all development activities carried out in Turkey, whose intellectual rights belong entirely to Turkey, and which received approval from the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency of the Ministry of Health for clinical research. It is very valuable that it is the first time that we have succeeded in delivering a molecule from the laboratory to patients with our own resources and that this has been proven feasible. Prof. I congratulate our teacher Sanyal and his team once again for this success.” said.
Minister Kacır also stated that Turkey does not yet have a "unicorn" in the field of health and said, "To date, our country's technology ecosystem has produced 7 technology startups, 7 'unicorns', or 7 'Turcorns' in our words, exceeding billions of dollars in value." But we have not yet been able to produce a Turcorn in the field of health. I believe that the drug developed by our teacher and his team will successfully complete phase-2 and phase-3 studies, and the initiative of which he is one of the founders and the many initiatives that follow them will turn into success stories on a global scale for Turkey. "In this regard, we included the work of our teacher Rana and his team in the 'Turcorn 100' program that we created to support the rapid scaling and expansion of our country's technology startups, which have the potential to grow rapidly on a global scale, to global markets," he said.
Member of the EU Commission presented his congratulations
Prof. Iliana Ivanova, Member of the European Union (EU) Commission Responsible for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, was deemed worthy of the "European Women Innovators Award" given by the European Union European Innovation Council (EIC) this year. Dr. He congratulated Rana Sanyal. Stating that Boğaziçi LifeSci is a joint success of Turkey and the EU, Ivanova said that the EU will continue to support prominent projects in the field of health with its new horizon programs.