Dr. Defne Bayik is a cancer immunologist focused on uncovering host regulatory pathways as targets for brain tumor immunotherapy. She completed her undergraduate degree in the Bilkent University Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and received her Ph.D. in 2016 through the National Institutes of Health-Bilkent University Graduate Partnership Program. Her dissertation work under the mentorship of Drs. Dennis M. Klinman and Ihsan Gurse identified differentiation pathways of immature myeloid cells to inflammatory and immunosuppressive macrophages. In 2017, Dr. Bayik 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. She demonstrated that sex differences in the anti-tumor immune response inform targeting of immunosuppressive myeloid cells in high-grade brain tumors. Her postdoc work also defined epigenetically regulated pathways that inform the functional heterogeneity of myeloid cells. She is a recipient of the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award and joined the University of Miami/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center as an Assistant Professor in December 2022.
