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The research laboratory locates within the Faculty of Science, Department of Botany, Istanbul University. The research group was established in October, 2019 with the support of TÜBİTAK-2232 “International Outstanding Researchers Program” to Dr. Işıl Tulum.

Our research focuses on pathogenic bacteria that belong to class Mollicutes, a group of bacteria including “Mycoplasma” (vertebrate pathogens), “Phytoplasma” and “Spiroplasma” (plant pathogens) that have undergone special reductive evolution to achieve “minimal genome”.

The main research topics of the laboratory are comparative genomic and proteomic approaches to explain how Mollicutes and plant pathogenic bacterial groups are formed, the mechanisms of disease, evolutionary transitions between different lifestyles and the evolution of pathogenicity in bacteria, as well as real-time imaging of pathogenic organisms with advanced microscopy techniques and establishment of early diagnosis systems.

Interdisciplinary studies such as identification of extreme microorganisms, therapeutic applications of microorganisms, biosensor design, phytopathology are carried out in the laboratory using integrated approaches including molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, cutting-edge technologies of synthetic biology, and bioengineering.