Elçin Ünal, PhD

Dr. Elçin Ünal is a Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Class of 1958 Chair at the University of California, Berkeley. Her lab studies the principles that govern the nuclear and cytoplasmic integrity of gametes, seeking to understand how gamete formation counteracts age-induced cellular damage and how meiotic cells partition their contents.

Dr. Ünal received her undergraduate degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in Türkiye. She then moved to the United States to pursue her PhD research in Doug Koshland's lab at the Carnegie Institution, Department of Embryology, and went on to complete her postdoctoral training as a Jane Coffin Childs Fellow in Angelika Amon's lab at MIT. Dr. Ünal is the recipient of the NIH Director's New Innovator Award, the Pew Scholar Award, the Pew Innovation Fund Investigator Award, the March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Award, the Damon Runyon Rachleff Innovation Award and the Sabri Ülker Science Award.