Billur Akkaya, MD, DPhil
Dr Billur Akkaya received her MD degree at Hacettepe University, Turkey, in 2008 and her D.Phil (PhD) degree at the University of Oxford, UK, in 2013. The Felix Scholarship and the Hugh Pilkington Scholarship from the University of Oxford funded her graduate studies. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the NIH as a member of the Laboratory of Immune System Biology, NIAID and started her lab at The Ohio State University in 2021. Dr Akkaya has studied T cell biology for more than a decade on a range of subjects, including modulation of the PD-1 pathway in T cells, T cell metabolism and mechanisms of immune regulation by regulatory T cells (Tregs). Her research has been deemed worthy of recognition by prestigious awards such as the NIH Fellows Award of Research Excellence, the American Association of Immunology Thermofisher Trainee Achievement Award, the International Cytokine and Interferon Society Sydney and Joan Pestka Award for Excellence in Cytokine and Interferon Research. She recently received NIAID New Innovators Award (DP2) to study the immunoinhibitory mechanisms used by antigen-specific Tregs in the contexts of autoimmunity and cancer.