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The R&D P.I. Director Asst. Professor of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Dentistry, Soykan Agar, has a vast background in academic teaching, research titles and firm-wise executive managerial positions.
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He earned many academic positions and grants in Netherlands, Canada and Türkiye, received many honors and awards. He enthusiastically enjoys being involved in plethora of setting from the fields including but not limited to biochemistry, pharmacy, computational chemistry, organic chemistry, neurobiology, bio/genetic engineering and computational drug design.
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Utilizing the most updated in silico software including molecular docking, molecular dynamics and post-MD analyses software, the center produces results discovering many new drug candidate families, crucial in the inhibition of cancer, neurological and neurodegenerative diseases.
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​​For the publications, and/or further info, please check out the following links:
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​​In our meetings with 3 teams (dentistry, pharmacy and software engineers), we discuss new molecule candidates, research paper writing oriented topics and the assignments of new methodologies.
Teams have team leaders and on top of them there are Vice-Directors who are seniors of all the teams directing the day to day research ideas and operations.
​​The research center can test any ligand of interest (drug candidate molecule) for any kind of receptor (target molecule).
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The research center is partnered with European COST Action programs in oncological drug design and hence many collaborative studies occur within a wide network of EACR (European Association for Cancer Research).​​
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With the international collaborations and friendships of Soykan Agar, in vitro and in vivo confirmations for the precise genetic and protein machinery suppressions are further studied by other research groups to confirm the in silico results.
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AI integrated computational drug design along with ADME estimations make the group a unique one in its sector.
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The assistants come from inter-disciplinary fields of dentistry, pharmacy, genetics, chemistry and computer/software engineering.
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​​Using the latest in silico tools to decipher new chemical structures and their indications towards the suppression of diseases with hardworking, unique assistants is a gift for this research center.
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​Thus, using the organic chemistry, biochemistry, genetic engineering, pharmaceutical engineering and computational chemical-biology background of the members combined with the supercomputers of this center, the center is able to work at any level of molecule and drug candidate design. ​​Especially investigating the antineoplastic features of new molecule candidates are crucial for the research center as well as discovering new potentials in neurodegenerative diseases.
Detailed literature search, ethical research paper writing, in silico simulations, in silico ADMET, educations and motivation meetings are frequently conducted in this center..
Soykan Agar was chosen the academician who publishes the most research papers throughout the University. He was awarded by both Chairman of Board of Trustees and University Rector in the annual ceremony.
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Currently, we go on our research with the pace of publishing 20 - 40 research papers annually. All studies discover unique de novo drug candidate molecules and drug families.
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In short, the research focuses and investigates receptor-targeted therapeutic molecules for diseases including cancer, inflammatory disorders, and neurodegenerative conditions. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, the center aims to identify and optimize novel drug candidates. International collaborations and integration with experimental research platforms support the validation of computational findings, contributing to the development of innovative therapeutic strategies and advancing modern pharmaceutical research.
