Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic
Miami, United States
Dr. Defne Bayik, PhD is an incoming Assistant Professor at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine as of December 2022. She received her PhD in 2016 through the Graduate Partnership Program between the National Institutes of Health, USA and Bilkent University. Working under the mentorship of Drs. Ihsan Gursel and Dennis M. Klinman, Dr. Bayik delineated the distinct differentiation pathways of immature myeloid cells to inflammatory and immunosuppressive macrophages in cancer and autoimmunity. In 2017, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Justin D. Lathia at the Cleveland Clinic as a postdoctoral fellow, where she gained experience in neuro-oncology and translational cancer immunotherapy research. Under Dr. Lathia’s mentorship, she demonstrated that sex differences in immunosuppressive myeloid cells determine glioblastoma progression and therapeutic response. Her ongoing research investigates the molecular basis of sex differences in anti-tumor immune response and mechanisms of myeloid cell immunosuppression in glioblastoma.