Banu İYİSAN

Banu İyisan is an Associate Professor at Boğaziçi University's Institute of Biomedical Engineering, where she founded and leads the Biofunctional Nanomaterials Design Laboratory (BIND Lab). Her research group became a Max Planck Partner Group in 2023 through collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from Technical University of Dresden (2016), an MSc in Chemical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University (2011), and a BSc in Chemical Engineering from the same institution (2009), including an Erasmus study period at Technical University of Munich.

Her multidisciplinary research integrates nanobiotechnology, polymer science, and biomaterials engineering to develop advanced nanocarriers for biomedical applications. Primary focus areas include:

• Design of stimuli-responsive nanocapsules for targeted drug delivery
• Development of multimodal nanoparticles for cancer theranostics
• Protein-nanoparticle interactions and their impact on therapeutic efficacy
• Light-activated nanotherapeutic systems
• Hybrid polymer-lipid nanostructures for enhanced drug encapsulation

Her publication portfolio demonstrates consistent focus on advanced nanocarrier systems for biomedical applications, with recent work emphasizing multimodal functionality, smart drug release mechanisms, and clinical translation of nanotechnologies. Trends show increasing complexity in nanocarrier design and expanded applications in oncology and diagnostic imaging.

Awards and recognition include:

• Max Planck Partner Group leadership (2023)

She leads several major research initiatives as Principal Investigator:

• Light-Driven Multimodal Nanocarriers (Max Planck Partnership, 2023-2028)
• Smart Biopolymer-Coated Gold Nanorods (YÖK ADEP, 2025-2027)
• Smart Nanocapsules for Breast Cancer Therapy (TUBITAK 2247, 2022-2025)
• Multimodal Polymersomes for Image-Guided Delivery (TUBITAK-DAAD, 2025-2027)

The BIND Lab conducts experimental research in functional nanomaterials, focusing on synthesis, characterization, and biomedical validation of nanocarriers. Current work involves collaborations on magnetic particle imaging systems and photothermal therapy platforms.