Prof. Dr. Mesude İşcan was born in 1954 in Bursa. He completed his primary and secondary education in Adapazarı. He entered the Department of Chemistry at METU in 1971 and graduated in 1976. The same year, he started working as a research assistant at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, which was then called the Department of Life Sciences. After completing his master's degree in 1978, he conducted research on "Brain Cell Cultures and Liposomes" in the Department of Neurobiology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged, Hungary in 1978-1979 with the 6th International Modern Biology Education Scholarship supported by UNESCO and ICRO. He continued his research at the same academy with a short-term research scholarship in 1988. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry in 1985. He became an assistant professor in 1987 and an associate professor the same year, and he worked in the U.S. in 1988-1989. He conducted research on “Metabolism of bile acids” at the Department of Gastroenterology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, New York. He became a professor in 1993. He won the “Sedat Simavi Health Sciences Award” in 1993. Prof. Dr. Mesude İşcan, who has taken part in numerous projects as a manager, consultant and researcher, has academic interests in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and Molecular Toxicology. Prof. Dr. Mesude İşcan has published over 100 articles in local and international journals in his field and trained 25 undergraduate and 14 PhD students. He contributed to the translation of Lehninger’s “Biochemistry” into Turkish. He gave lectures in workshops and summer schools on “Molecular Biology” and “Bioinformatics”. He was a member of many national and international associations. He served on the board of the Turkish Biochemistry Association, which is among these, for many years starting in 1986. He served as the 2nd President of the association in 1998-2000 and 2006-2010 and as the Secretary General in 1986-1988 and 2020-2006. After 1994, he was a member of the Editorial Board of the Turkish Biochemistry Journal for many years. He served as the Congress Secretary, Organizing Committee Member and Scientific Board Member in many national and international congresses organized by the Turkish Biochemistry Association. Prof. Dr. Mesude İşcan, who also held administrative positions, served as the Vice Head of the Department of Biology at METU in 1991-1994, Head of the Department of Biochemistry at the Institute of Science in 1997-2000 and Head of the Department of Biological Sciences in 2000-2003.
