Mehmet Toner: A Turkish Scientist Pioneering Cancer Liquid Biopsy Worldwide with Smart Microchips

Microchip technology in cancer is used in many fields, from drug discovery to cancer diagnosis through liquid biopsy . Let us meet a Turkish scientist recognized worldwide in his field for the smart microchips and liquid biopsy applications he developed for oncology, Professor Dr. Mehmet Toner.

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In 2019, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Toner was among 100 members elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the most respected institutions in the United States. He was born in 1958 in Istanbul.

In 1983, he graduated from Istanbul Technical University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. He then completed a master’s program in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1985 and doctoral studies in medical engineering in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in 1989. After various academic positions at Massachusetts Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in 2002 he became Professor of Health Sciences and Technology in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Professor Dr. Mehmet Toner serves as a senior scientific staff member at Shriners Children’s Hospital. He is a co-founder of the Center for Engineering in Medicine and founder of the NIH BioMicroElectroMechanical Systems (BıoMEMS) Center at Massachusetts Hospital. He is also Director of the Biomedical Engineering Research and Training Program for physicians at MGH. He belongs to national and international professional committees and serves on the editorial boards of journals including Cryobiology, Cryo-Letters, Cell Preservation Technology, Annual Reviews in Biomedical Engineering, and Nanomedicine. He serves on numerous national and international panels and review boards, including United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) Study Sections, National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award panels, the NSF Nanoscience panel, and the NIH Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering panel.

In 1994, he won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) YC Fung Faculty Award in Bioengineering. In 1995, he received the Whitaker Foundation Special Opportunity Award. In 1997, he won the John F and Virginia B Taplin Faculty Fellow Award from Harvard and MIT. In 1998, Prof. Dr. Mehmet Toner was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He serves on scientific advisory boards of multiple biotechnology and medical device companies and has been a scientific founder of several startup companies. For his work in cancer, in 2019 he also received the 18. Vehbi Koç Award.

Professor Dr. Mehmet Toner, in many fields of medicine, is known for his multidisciplinary approaches. His research includes biostabilization, low-temperature biology, tissue engineering, artificial organs, and microsystems engineering in clinical medicine and biology. He receives research support from NIH, NSF, DARPA, the Whitaker Foundation, the National Textile Center, and many industrial companies. Students he has mentored work at prestigious universities and companies worldwide, including MIT, Harvard, UCSD, UC Irvıne, UC Davis, Rutgers U, University of Minnesota, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Amsterdam, Keio University, University of Alberta, Amgen, Bristol-Myers, and BioLife.

Professor Mehmet Toner’s scientific papers have received more than 45 thousand citations to date; he has over 200 scientific publications and more than 350 scientific presentations. 

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