Oktay Genel

Oktay is a medical student about to start an MSc in Neuroscience at the IoPPN. Being born and raised in southern France, in a Turkish household, and studying here in the UK, he considers himself lucky to be able to have an original perspective on life.

As an aspiring physician-scientist, his academic and research interests lie in everything neuro-related, especially neurosurgery, oncology and stem cells. He plans to spend a significant amount of his time performing research, strengthening the link between bench and bedside for the benefit of both patients and science.

After having been exposed to fascinating dry neuropsychiatry research during a scholarly project investigating the role of AQP4 in depression, he is currently stepping into wet research working on in vivo astrocyte-to-neuron reprogramming as part of a summer fellowship.

Outside academia, he maintains his artistic personality by playing traditional Turkish music, and reading all kinds of books in different languages, with a preference for poetry.