Mehmet Saadeddin Öztürk
Assistant Professor
Dr. Mehmet Saadeddin Ozturk's research lies at the intersection of optical imaging, microfluidics, and computational modeling, with a focus on developing label-free diagnostic technologies for cancer and cell analysis.
Dr. Ozturk earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he specialized in mesoscopic fluorescence tomography systems. He completed postdoctoral training at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Germany through the prestigious Marie Curie Co-Fund Fellowship, contributing to multimodal imaging platforms for in vivo cancer monitoring.
His current projects integrates optical scattering and AI to develop a label-free liquid biopsy platform for circulating tumor cell detection. His ongoing research spans intravital imaging, Raman spectroscopy-integrated lab-on-chip devices, and non-contact gait analysis in veterinary biomechanics.
Dr. Ozturk has published in journals including Science Advances, Nature Communications Biology, and Biomedical Optics Express. He actively reviews for leading journals and serves as a panelist for TÜBİTAK and TÜSEB. At Boğaziçi, he teaches graduate courses in biomedical optics and medical imaging, with a strong emphasis on translational engineering.
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Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering (2013 – 2016)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, USA -
M.Sc. in Manufacturing Engineering (2008 – 2010)
Boston University (BU), Boston, MA, USA -
B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering (2002 – 2006)
Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Türkiye – Full Scholarship
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Assistant Professor — Bioengineering Department, Marmara University, Istanbul, Türkiye
2022 – 2024 -
Assistant Professor — Electrical & Electronics Engineering Department, Karadeniz Technical University, Trabzon, Türkiye
2020 – 2021 -
Technical Advisor — ASELSAN UGES, Health Systems (In-Vitro Diagnostic Devices), Ankara, Türkiye
2020 – 2021 -
Post-Doctoral Fellow — European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, Germany
2017 – 2020 -
Teaching Assistant — Mechanical Engineering Department, Boston University, Boston, USA
2011 – 2012
Biomedical Optics: Building imaging and diagnostic devices. Computational Imaging and Data Analysis: Modeling light for scattering objects and in scattering environment. Biomedical Instrumentation and System Integration: Integration of hardware and software for automated diagnostics. Preclinical and Veterinary Imaging: Small animal imaging, veterinary gait analysis.
Scholarship Awards
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Marie Curie Co-Fund Post-Doctoral Fellowship — European Molecular Biology Laboratory, 2017 – 2020
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Two-year Tuition & Stipend (M.Sc.) — Ministry of Education, Republic of Turkey, 2008 – 2010
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Four-year Tuition Scholarship (B.Sc.) — Council of Higher Education, Republic of Turkey, 2002 – 2006
Travel Grants
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EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) — Katowice, Poland, 2024
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World Molecular Imaging Congress — New York, NY, USA, 2016
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International Symposium on Metabolic Imaging & Spectroscopy — Philadelphia, PA, USA, 2013
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Northeast Bioengineering Conference — Syracuse, NY, USA, 2013
Presentation Awards
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Best Doctoral Thesis — Zelda & David G. Gisser Prize, Bioengineering Department, RPI, 2016
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Best Poster (Honourable Mention) — Northeast Bioengineering Conference (NEBEC), Syracuse, NY, 2013
Open Positions Available! Please get in touch for details.
TUSEB ArGe-B Developing a preclinical multimodal imaging platform for drug monitorin.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
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2024 Yalin E.E., Aydogdu S., Gundemir O., Ozturk M.S., Michaud M.
“Investigating Brain Size Variation in Domestic Cat Breeds: A Comparative Study of British Shorthair and Scottish Fold.” Journal of Anatomy – under review. -
2023 Ermakova Y.G. et al. (incl. Ozturk M.S.)
“Thermogenetic control of Ca²⁺ levels in cells and tissues.” bioRxiv pre-print. -
2021 Ozturk M.S., Montero M.G., Wang L. et al.
“Intravital mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography allows non-invasive in-vivo monitoring and quantification of breast-cancer growth dynamics.” Communications Biology 4: 556. -
2020 Ozturk M.S., Lee V.K., Zou H. et al.
“High-resolution tomographic analysis of an in-vitro 3-D glioblastoma model under long-term drug treatment.” Science Advances 6: eaba7513. -
2019 Yang F., Faulkner D., Yao R., Ozturk M.S. et al.
“System configuration optimization for mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography.” Biomedical Optics Express 10: 5660–5674. -
2018 Yang F., Yao R., Ozturk M.S. et al.
“Improving mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography via pre-conditioning and regularization.” Biomedical Optics Express 9: 2765–2778. -
2017 Yang F., Ozturk M.S., Yao R., Intes X.
“Improving mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography through data reduction.” Biomedical Optics Express 8: 3868–3881. -
2015 Ozturk M.S. et al.
“Mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography for evaluating engineered tissues.” Annals of Biomedical Engineering 44: 667–679. -
2014 Ozturk M.S. et al.
“Mesoscopic fluorescence tomography of a photosensitizer (HPPH) 3-D biodistribution in skin cancer.” Academic Radiology 21: 271–280. -
2013 Ozturk M.S. et al.
“Mesoscopic fluorescence molecular tomography of reporter genes in bioprinted thick tissue.” Journal of Biomedical Optics 18: 100501.
Book Chapters
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2020 Ozturk M.S. & Prevedel R.
“Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques.” In Imaging from Cells to Animals In Vivo (Barroso & Intes, eds.), CRC Press. -
2015 Lee V.K., Dias A., Ozturk M.S. et al.
“3-D Bioprinting and 3-D Imaging for Stem-Cell Engineering.” In Bioprinting in Regenerative Medicine (Turksen, ed.), Springer.
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TUSEB – Health Institutes of Türkiye
Funding-call panelist & project referee (2024 – present) -
TÜBİTAK – Scientific & Technological Research Council of Türkiye
Funding-call panelist & project referee (2023 – present) -
TEKNOFEST - The Technology for Humanity Competition (2025- present)
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Frontiers in Bioinformatics – journal reviewer (2021 – present)
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Academic Radiology – journal reviewer (2017 – present)
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Biomedical Optics Express – journal reviewer (2014 – present)
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Journal of Biomedical Optics – journal reviewer (2013 – present)
BME563: Medical Imaging (Fall 2025)
BM59F: Introduction to Biomedical Optics (Spring 2024)
