Erdal Karaöz

After completing his university education at Dicle University in 1986, Dr. Erdal Karaöz completed his "PhD" education at Gazi University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Histology and Embryology in 1994. He received the title of "Associate Professor" in 1996 and "Professor" in 2002. Working in the field of "Stem Cell, Tissue Engineering and Gene Therapies" since 2000, Dr. Karaöz conducted studies on "Embryonic Stem Cell and Islet Transplantation" at Harvard University in Boston, USA in 2005.

Having published 4 books, authored 14 book chapters, 10 of which are international, and 190 published articles, 169 of which are international, Dr. Karaöz (Google Scholar H index: 38,) founded "Kocaeli University (KOU) Stem Cell and Gene Therapies Research and Application Center" (KÖGEM) in 2006, the first institutional R&D center in the field of stem cell in Turkey. During his time at KÖGEM, he organized 23 national and international courses on "Stem Cell, Tissue Engineering and Endometrial Embryo Co-Culture" with the participation of approximately 400 academicians and scientists. During this period, he worked as an executive, researcher and consultant in many national and international projects, including 30 TÜBİTAK projects. He has worked and continues to work as Project Consultant-Panelist and External Reviewer for many institutions, especially Tübitak.

He served as the founding Head of the "Stem Cell Department" at Kocaeli University Institute of Health Sciences in 2010 and initiated the first Postgraduate education in the field of "Stem Cell" in Turkey. In the following years, he started the "PhD" program. Many students have completed or are continuing their education in these programs.

Dr. Karaöz is a reviewer for many national and international scientific journals and is on the editorial board of some of them. He has given conferences as an invited speaker in nearly 300 national and international congresses.

He voluntarily retired from this position, which he continued until 1 October 2014 and started to work as the Regenerative Medicine, Stem Cell Production Centers Supervisor at Liv Hospital / Istanbul, where he established the center under GMP (Good Manufacture Practice) standards for the first time in Turkey under private hospital conditions.

Prof. Karaöz served as the founding chairperson of the board of directors of the "Stem Cell and Cellular Therapy Association" between 2013 - 2016 and is still a member of the Board of Directors. He is currently a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences Stem Cell Working Group.

Prof. Karaöz mainly carries out R&D studies on the immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, new vessel formation and fine structure properties of Mesenchymal Stem Cells obtained from various tissues and organs, as well as beta cell replacement applications of embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells (IPSCs) in diabetes treatment. Hitherto, he has been a consultant in the establishment process of many national and international stem cell laboratories. He is currently managing the processes that require or do not require ministry approval for people with various diseases to benefit from cellular treatment options with transplantable cells produced in the GMP (Good Manufacture Practice) Lab in the "Regenerative Medicine Center", where he is the director under Private Liv Hospital. Prof. Karaöz has been and/or is involved in many clinical trials and research projects approved by the Ministry of Health titled Efficacy of Allogeneic Umbilical Cord Matrix Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for many diseases such as "Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy", "Spinocerebellar ataxia", "Friedreich's ataxia", "Non-progressive congenital myopathy", "spinal cord injury", "Retinitis pigmentosa", "hypoxic encephalopathy due to ischemia", "encephalomalacia after head trauma", "cerebral palsy" and "subacute sclerosing pan encephalitis (SSPE), Multiple sclerosis, Autism, Systemic sclerosis which cannot be treated with currently known medical methods. In the first year of the Covid 19 pandemic, he managed the laboratory part of the stem cell application processes in ministry-approved cGMP standards to approximately 400 intensive care patients who had lost all known treatment options.

Prof. Karaöz served as the founding Vice Rector of Istinye University (ISU), which was established on 01.04.2015 with Law No. 6642, until 30.12.2019. He assumed the position of Rector in December 2019 and resigned from this position voluntarily in January 2022. During the 6 years he spent at the university, he built the entire R&D infrastructure of the university and worked hard to make ISU a real R&D university. In this context, 3D Design and Prototyping Application and Research Center, Scientific and Technological Research Application and Research Center, Molecular Cancer Application and Research Center, Neurological Sciences Application and Research Center, Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering Application and Research Center, Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Application and Research Center, Ageing Studies Application and Research Center and Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Application and Research Center are some of the R&D centers established by Prof. Karaöz.

Prof. Karaöz currently devotes all his energy to national and international R&D activities at the Regenerative Medicine Stem Cell Center at Liv Hospital, LivMedCell, where he serves as Director, and continues his clinical studies simultaneously. Prof. Karaöz continues to work in Biotechnology Companies, of which he is a founder or partner, to develop stem cell-based biological products that will benefit humanity. He serves as the founder and Head of the Board of Directors of Hazkar Sağlık Hiz. Ltd. Şti. founder and CBO of Virostem Biotechnology A.Ş., founder and CEO of CellMG A.Ş