Faculty
Yasemin M. Akay is currently an Instructional Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston. She received her B.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey and M.S. and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, USA.
She completed her Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (NIH) in the Departments of Pharmacology & Toxicology, the Department of Physiology Dartmouth Medical School, the Department of Biology, Dartmouth College and in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Boston University, School of Medicine, Advanced Research Center.
Previously, she was a Research Assistant Professor in the School of Biological & Health Systems Engineering, Fulton School of Engineering, Arizona State University and Instructional and Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston.
Dr. Yasemin M. Akay's research focuses on novel technologies for cost-effective high-throughput screening of novel cancer drugs and therapeutics and assessment of treatment responses.
She is currently exploring the effect of maternal cigarette smoking and/or alcohol consumption during pregnancy by analyzing the mRNA expressions of a single cell analysis of the infant rats’ dopamine neurons using patch-clamp electrophysiology and DNA microarrays.
Selected Publications
- Y.M. Akay, Analysis of Fetal Heart Variability and Stress Conditions In Fetuses Using Wavelets and Neural Networks (ALOPEX): A Feasibility Study. Ph.D. Dissertation, Rutgers University.
- Y.M. Akay, Noninvasive Detection of Coronary Artery Disease: A Comparative Study of Signal Processing Techniques, M.S. Thesis, Rutgers University.
- Hui Xia, Naze G. Avci, Akay, YM, Yoshua Esquenazi Levy, Lisa H. Schmitt, Nitin Tandon, Jay-Jiguang Zhu, Metin Akay, Temozolomide in Combination with NF-κB Inhibitor Significantly Disrupts the Glioblastoma Multiforme Spheroid Formation. IEEE OJBME, 2020
- Naze G. Avci, Sadaf Ebrahimzadeh‐Pustchi, Akay, YM, Yoshua Esquenazi, Nitin Tandon , Jay‐Jiguang Zhu & Metin Akay. NF‐κB Inhibitor with Temozolomide Results in Significant Apoptosis in Glioblastoma via the NF‐κB(p65) and Actin Cytoskeleton Regulatory Pathways. Sci. Rep., 2020.
- Yoshinori Sunaga, Yasumi Ohta, Akay, YM, Jun Ohta and Metin Akay. Monitoring neural activities in the VTA in response to nicotine intake using a novel implantable microimaging device. IEEE Access, 2020.
- Sadaf Ebrahimzadeh-Pustchi, Naze G. Avci, Akay, YM, and Metin Akay. Astrocyte decreased the sensitivity of Glioblastoma cells to Temozolomide and Bay 11-7082. IJMS, 2020.
- Tina Kazemi, Shuyan Huang, Naze G. Avci, Charlotte Mae K. Waits, Akay, YM & Metin Akay. Investigating the Influence of Perinatal Nicotine and Alcohol Exposure on the Genetic Profiles of Dopaminergic Neurons in the VTA using miRNA–mRNA Analysis. Sci. Rep., 2020.
- Tina Kazemi, Shuyan Huang, Naze G. Avci, Akay, YM & Metin Akay. Investigating the effects of chronic perinatal alcohol and combined nicotine and alcohol exposure on dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic neurons in the VTA. Sci. Rep., 2020.
- Tina Kazemi, Naze G. Avci, Renee F. Keller, Akay, YM & Metin Akay. Investigating the influence of perinatal nicotine exposure on genetic pro les of neurons in the sub-regions of the VTA. Sci. Rep., 2020.