Özlem Sarikaya Bayram

I have recently established the Epigenetics Research Group hosted by Professor Kevin Kavanagh’s Medical Mycology Laboratory in the Biology Department, having competitively secured an SFI-IRC Pathways Programme grant. My research focuses on unraveling the epigenetic regulation of food-contaminating mycotoxins, which pose a significant threat to human and animal health. Additionally, I am actively involved in the development of nutraceuticals and functional foods for the future of food. My research on food safety has been featured in Bridge Magazine at Maynooth University in December 2022.

I earned my Ph.D. (Dr.rer.nat) with the highest honors, summa cum laude, from the Göttingen Graduate Centre for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences, operating under the collaboration of Georg August University and the Max Planck Institute in Germany. I achieved this by competitively securing the Excellence Ph.D. Scholarship and I was honored with the Elisabeth Gateff Best Ph.D. in Genetics Award by the German Genetics Society in the same year. During my doctoral studies, I made a groundbreaking discovery on a methyltransferase complex that epigenetically regulates mycotoxin biosynthesis in the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans which was published in prestigious journal Developmental Cell. Subsequently, I secured an IRC Postdoctoral Fellowship and conducted research at Maynooth University. My focus was on the opportunistic human pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus, which has a mortality rate up to 80%. My contributions include two published papers on the regulation of gliotoxin production and the control of pathogen sporulation. Additionally, I explored host-pathogen interactions between bone marrow-derived macrophages and Aspergillus fumigatus spores, gaining insights into the regulation of pathogenicity and mammalian defense mechanisms against pathogens. Following my postdoctoral phase, I worked as a QC Bioanalytical Scientist in the pharmaceutical industry, specializing in testing various biologics used in the treatment of diabetes and breast cancer. I am also the author of the book 'Functional Whole Food Plant-Based Nutrition for Longevity,' 2nd edition, published in Turkish by Nobel Scientific Press. My book focuses on preventing current epidemic diseases such as diabetes and obesity through informed and functional food choices. My research has received nearly 1,000 citations, according to Google Scholar.