METU 70th Year Faculty Seminars: The Journey and Balance of Our Immune System

Prof. Dr. Deniz N. Çağdaş Ayvaz graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Hacettepe University in
1998. Following her graduation, Prof Çağdaş Ayvaz completed approximately one year of residency
training in Internal Medicine and subsequently finished her specialization in Pediatrics at İhsan
Doğramacı Children’s Hospital of Hacettepe University. She worked in the field of Pediatric Cardiology
for four years and completed her subspecialty training in Pediatric Immunology and Allergic Diseases
at Hacettepe University in 2014. She has also earned a Ph.D. degree in Basic Immunology.
In 2017, she conducted research in immunology as a visiting researcher at leading institutions,
including Rockefeller University, Harvard University, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID/NIH). Within this framework, she carried out scientific research at NIAID with the
support of the Fulbright Program.
Prof. Dr. Çağdaş Ayvaz has participated in numerous national and international scientific research
projects and has made internationally recognized contributions towards the identification of several
novel primary immunodeficiency genes, including RASGRP1, IL6ST, and GIMAP6. She has authored
over 190 scientific articles, most of which are indexed in PubMed, and more than 500 academic
publications in total. Her work has received approximately 3,000 citations, and her h-index is 24 (Web
of Science).
Prof. Dr. Çağdaş Ayvaz obtained her Professorship in 2018. As of 2022, she has been serving as the
Head of the Department of Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University. Her
academic interests include autoimmune diseases, immune dysregulation, lymphoproliferative
disorders, cancer immunopathogenesis, transplantation immunology, and age-related immune
responses.