Tolga Soykan, PhD

soykantolga@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/tolgasoykan


SUMMARY
 

• Passionate, diligent and innovative scientist with 10+ years of experience in molecular neurobiology, biochemistry and cell biology, strong expertise in assay development and state-of-the-art microscopy on cellular models.

• Highly skilled in information management. Ability to conceptualize, design, execute, analyze, interpret and document research, as demonstrated by 3 first-author and 2 last-author publications in top-tier journals. Strong grasp of neuronal cell biology literature as evidenced by 5 review articles published in prestigious journals.

• Experienced in managing multiple projects simultaneously and mentoring junior scientists as evidenced by direct supervision of 3 PhD students and more than 6 MSc and BSc students for 3 to 12-month periods. 


EXPERIENCE

Image Analysis Staff Scientist

Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (May 2023 – present)

• Helping scientists from multiple disciplines with their microscopy experiments and image analysis problems.

• Developing and maintaining image analysis pipelines and automated scripts.

• Offering beginner and advanced workshops on image processing, quantitative image analysis and biostatistics.


Postdoctoral Researcher

Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (Jul 2014 – April 2023)

• Co-supervised two PhD projects that investigated the role of neuronal endosomes and actin cytoskeleton in synaptic transmission. Published in EMBO Journal and eLife as a last author (Liu et al., 2022 & Oevel et al., 2024). 

• Developed a novel cellular assay combining live microscopy and local perfusion setup to study ultrafast endocytosis of synaptic vesicles. Performed a pharmacological screen on cultured neurons to investigate the role of actin cytoskeleton in synaptic vesicle endocytosis dynamics using high-resolution microscopy techniques. Published in Neuron (Soykan et al., 2017). 

• Helped image analysts to develop an easy-to-use fully open-source workflow that enables automated image and data analysis of synaptic activity in cultured neurons. Published in Frontiers in Computer Science (Schmied et al., 2021). 

• Lectured MSc students on "Synaptic Transmission and Synaptic Vesicle Recycling".

• Contributed to acquisition of a yearly grant of 120K Euros for 6 years.


Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine (Jun 2011 – May 2014)

• Collaborated with structural biologists to solve the 3D structure of a synaptic protein. Carried out various cell-based and biochemical assays. Published in EMBO Journal and Biochemical Journal (Soykan, et al., 2014), (Poulopoulos*, Soykan*, et al,. 2012). 

• Instructed PhD students in preparing primary neuronal cultures from mouse models.


PhD Student

Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine (Oct 2007 – May 2011)

• Conceptualized and designed my own project as a PhD applicant. Developed a cell-based assay combined with confocal microscopy to investigate synapse formation. Published research in top journals such as Neuron and PNAS.

• Tutored Neuroscience MSc students on "Signal Transduction" and "Cell Adhesion" lectures.


EDUCATION

University of Göttingen, PhD, Molecular Biology 2007 – 2011
University of Göttingen, MSc/PhD Program, Molecular Biology, 2006-2007
Sabanci University, BSc, Biological Sciences and Bioengineering (Major), Chemistry (Minor), 2002-2006


LANGUAGES

Turkish (Native) – English (Fluent) – German (Advanced)