Nihal Olcay Dogan
Ph.D. Student
Heisenbergstr. 3
70569 Stuttgart
Germany
- Patient-derivable medical microrobots
- Blood-derived micromachines
- Immune cell-based microrobots
- Biohybrid microrobots
- Macrophages
- Immunotherapy
- PhD: Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, In Progress
- MSc: Chemical and Biological Engineering, Koc University, Turkey, 2019
- BSc / Double Degree: Chemical Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, 2017
- BSc: Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, 2016
Nihal Olcay Dogan is a doctoral researcher in Physical Intelligence Department and a Ph.D. candidate at ETH Zurich. Her research aims to improve the capabilities of medical microrobots by introducing a personalized medicine approach. She combines patient-derived biomaterials with microrobots for cancer treatment: she uses blood plasma, blood proteins, and immune cells as patient-derived biomaterials to fabricate immune-responsive microrobots for medical applications. By using biomaterials that the body recognizes as its own to make microrobots, these microrobots can perform their intended tasks without side effects. Her pioneering work represents a significant advancement toward in vivo medical applications of mobile microrobots by implementing a personalized medical treatment approach.
Nihal received her master's degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Koc University in Istanbul, where she studied chitosan-based carriers for drug and gene delivery applications to one day battle cancer. In 2019, she received the "Academic Excellence Award" from Koc University for her outstanding academic performance among all graduate students. She earned dual bachelor's degrees in Chemical Engineering and Molecular Biology and Genetics from Istanbul Technical University in Turkey.