Dr Busra Aktas

Busra Aktas is currently an assistant professor at the Molecular Biology and Genetics department of Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University in Turkey and working on brain-gut interactions in dopaminergic mouse model of Parkinson’s disease and therapeutic potential of modulating gut microbiota. After completing her B.Sc. degree in Biology at the Gazi University in Turkey, she received her M.Sc. and Ph.D in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Bacteriology minor. Her research interests are in genetics and physiology of lactic acid bacteria which are present in human microbiota commensally and commonly used as probiotics. She utilizes a combination of in silico, in vitro, and in vivo studies to explore the mechanisms of probiotic action and intestinal microbiota and focuses on altering composition of gut microbiota to prevent or treat human diseases.