Prof. Esma Yolcu received her Ph.D. in Biology and Genetics at Ankara University and her M.Sc. in Medical Biology and Genetics at Gazi University. She is currently a Professor of Pediatrics and a NextGen Precision Health Investigator. Her research interests include immunomodulation, bioengineering, cancer biology, molecular biology, exosomes, liposomes, biomarkers, and autoimmune diseases. Prof. Yolcu co-developed the ProtEx™ platform, which is instrumental in generating immune ligands for localized immunomodulation with applications in autoimmune conditions, transplantation, and cancer therapies. Among her key contributions is the development of SA-FasL, a novel agonist targeting the Fas pathway with significant apoptotic activity, explored in transplantation models and further applied to biomaterials and extracellular vesicles for treating type 1 diabetes and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).