Nutrition, Metabolism and Public Health
Nutrition, Metabolism and Public Health
Sabri Ülker Foundation was established in 2009 to encourage public health and nutrition with a special focus on the Turkish population and regional neighbours. The vision of the Foundation is to be an independent and trustworthy contributor to public awareness on food, nutrition and health as a non-profit organization. Since its inception Sabri Ülker Foundation pursued this vision through its interactions with many governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as local and international Universities and other educational institutions with the goal of improving public health.
The jury for the selection of the Sabri Ülker Science Award consists of previous winners of the award, Dr. Zeki Sözen, ex officio, and chaired by Dr. Gökhan Hotamışlıgil.
Assoc. Dr. Nilay Yapıcı Was the Winner of the 2022 Sabri Ülker Science Award!
The Sabri Ülker Foundation Science Award which is one of the most prestigious awards of the world of science was given to its new winner. The winner of the award which was rewarded for the seventh time this year was Assoc. Dr. Nilay Yapıcı, who is an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and Nancy & Peter Meinig Family Investigator. Yapıcı was entitled to receive the award for her study on, “How the Nervous System Controls the Eating Instinct and Metabolism”.
During the ceremony which took place in Istanbul, Assoc. Dr. Nilay Yapıcı’s award was presented by Dr. Çetin Ali Dönmez, the Vice Minister of Industry and Technology of the Republic of Turkey; Ali Ülker, the Yıldız Holding’s Chairman of the Board of Directors; Prof. Dr. Gökhan Hotamışlıgil, the Harvard Sabri Ülker Center President and Dr. Talat İçöz, the Sabri Ülker Foundation President.
Many important figures from the world of science, academy and business world attended the organization where the projects of young researchers in the fields of nutrition, food and metabolism were rewarded with the purpose of encouraging Turkey’s improvement in its journey of science.
Award winning study; studies the neural nets controlling food intake in the brain
Focusing on the biology of hunger in her studies, Assoc. Dr. Nilay Yapıcı is researching how the neural nets that control food intake in the brain work. In her experiments at her lab, Assoc. Dr. Yapıcı carries out studies to find the neurons that manage food intake decisions in the brain and to understand how the activities of these neurons change during the desire to eat. The target as a result of these studies is to analyze the mechanism that causes the overconsumption of especially some foods.
Dr. Yapıcı’s lab; focuses on how animals integrate their physiological conditions with external stimuli and make behavioral decisions, and how these decisions are regulated by organisms. Also, the way that the perception of taste and the sensation of hunger work on the level of genes, cells and neural nets is studies in the latest research projects to be carried out at the lab.
