Lab Members

Ertuğrul grew up in Istanbul and obtained his BS degree in Physics at Bogazici (i.e., Bosphorus) University in Istanbul. He then obtained his PhD in Physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed his thesis project in the lab of Alexander van Oudenaarden. During his PhD program, he investigated the underlying causes of stochastic gene expression, the functional roles of feedback loops in generating bistability (hysteresis), triggering symmetry breaking and establishing cell polarity. Later, he completed his postdoctoral studies in the labs of the late Julian Lewis and Olivier Pourquie. To support his eaerlir studies, Ertuğrul received the Merck/MIT computational biology predoctoral fellowship, as well as the Cancer Research UK and Marie Curie and European Molecular Biology Organization postdoctoral fellowships. After becoming a faculty, he was selected as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Faculty Fellow. More recently, he became the Robert Laughlin Rea Professor at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. Ertuğrul considers tissue/organ patterns as a form of biological "art." Since his postdoctoral studies, he has been investigating the mechanism controlling somite segmentation in vertebrates (a famous example of developmental pattern formation).

Kemal earned his PhD in Physics from Queen Mary University of London, UK. During his PhD, he developed labeling and imaging strategies for super-resolution imaging of biological samples using quantum dot-based spectral separation with a standard confocal microscope. Kemal joined the Özbudak Lab as a postdoctoral fellow at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Since June 2024, he has been working as a Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University. His research investigates the molecular mechanism controlling the timing of periodic somite segmentation and epithelialization of somites.

Cassie McDaniel is a PhD student in the Driskill Graduate Program where she is studying limb development. She received her BS in Psychology with a concentration in Behavioral Neuroscience at Wright State University.

Didar is a PhD student in the Driskill Graduate Program (DGP) at Northwestern University. He obtained his BS and MS degrees in Physics at Turkmen State University. His current research focuses on unraveling the complexities of somite formation in zebrafish embryos, with a specific emphasis on understanding the intricate interactions among proteins and regulatory networks driving this developmental process. Eager to broaden his skill set, Didar is keen on learning wet lab techniques and proficiently conducts microscopy imaging. He conducts image and data analyses using various programming software. Outside of the lab, he enjoys reading, disassembling electronic equipment’s and spending time with his family.

Angad is a PhD student in the Driskill Graduate Program (DGP) at Northwestern University. He obtained his BS and MS at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. After pursuing research in synthetic biology during undergrad, he later transitioned to developmental systems biology in the Özbudak Lab. He utilizes his multidisciplinary training and systems level approach to unravel nature's fundamental working principles. Currently, his research focuses on untangling the basic architecture of a biological clock, the segmentation clock. For that he employs time-controlled perturbation, microfluidics, high-resolution live imaging and single cell analysis. He originally hails from a village in Punjab, India. According to sources, he is prolific bhangra dancer and recently achieved the title of 'All England Champion of Cincinnati' in Badminton. Additionally, he is really passionate about science communication and teaching. Check out his YouTube channel and X (Twitter).

Eslim obtained her BS in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bilkent University, Turkey. Eslim is a lab technician in the Özbudak Lab. Her research focuses on uncovering the gene regulatory network involved in somitogenesis. For that, she employs perturbation to signaling pathways and quantifies the outcome by single molecule high resolution imaging. Besides work, she enjoys taking care of plants, writing small texts, reading and doing puzzles.

Ben received his BS in Biochemistry from Purdue University. He joined the Özbudak Lab in December 2023 and uses microfluidics and time-lapse confocal microscopy imaging to investigate the in vivo dynamics of oscillatory proteins following stress induced perturbations in zebrafish embryos. Outside of the lab he enjoys watching sports, golfing, fitness, travel and spending time with friends and family.