Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatma Duygu Kaya Yertutanol

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatma Duygu Kaya Yertutanol was born in Istanbul in 1981. After finishing TED Ankara College Foundation Private High School in 1999, she studied medicine at Gazi University School of Medicine, graduating in 2005.

Psychiatric training and neuroscience doctorate

She trained as a psychiatry resident in the Department of Psychiatry at Gazi University School of Medicine and became a psychiatrist in 2010. The same year she took up a specialist post at Ankara Elmadağ State Hospital as part of her compulsory state service, and also enrolled in the Neuroscience PhD programme run by the Gazi University Neuropsychiatry Center. She left Elmadağ State Hospital of her own accord at the end of 2014.

Her laboratory research dates back to 2007, when she obtained a Certificate in the Use of Laboratory Animals from the Gazi University Center for Laboratory Animal Breeding and Experimental Research. She then worked on a university-funded BAP research project and related studies in which psychiatric disorders were modelled in rodents; the work combined behavioural analysis with immunohistochemical assessment of nervous-system changes produced by psychopharmacological agents or behavioural interventions. Her neuroscience PhD, begun in 2010, was completed in 2017 with the dissertation "Behavioral Effects of Gabapentin on a Schizophrenia-Like State Induced by Sleep Deprivation in Rats", earning her the Doctor of Philosophy degree.

Research and academic output

Dr. Kaya Yertutanol has published in Turkish and international journals and has written two book chapters, one for a national and one for an international volume. She has given scientific presentations at many congresses, conferences and symposia and has won two poster awards, one national and one international. She has completed two TÜBİTAK 3001 research projects, leading one as principal investigator and contributing to the other as a researcher.

Her scientific interests include:

• Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
• Addiction
• Psychopharmacology
• Modelling psychiatric disorders in experimental animals
• Neurophilosophy

Memberships and editorial roles

She is a member of the Turkish Medical Association and the Turkish Psychiatric Association, and sits on the Board of Directors of NPFUAM (Center for Neuropsychopharmacology Application and Research). Within the Turkish Psychiatric Association she serves on both the Neuroscience Subcommittee and the Psychopharmacology and Somatic Treatments Subcommittee. She has been on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry since 2010 and on that of The Journal of Neurobehavioral Sciences since 2015.

She speaks fluent English and is married.