I am Dr Muhammed Yuksel born and educated in Belgium. I have a Bachelors’ and a Masters’ degree in Biomedical Sciences obtained at Ghent University (Belgium) between 2004 and 2010. I graduated in 2016 with a PhD in Health Sciences (Immunology) from Ghent University, establishing mouse models of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) in HLA-DR3 or HLA-DR4 transgenic NOD mice. Within the framework of my PhD, I had the unique opportunity to study at Yale University (USA) for over 2 years mastering the theoretical and practical skills in (auto)immunity. Additionally, as a Research Assistant/PostdocI, I continued my research on human AIH in the Institute of Liver Studies at King's College London (UK) for 4 years. Between 2018 and 2023, I was Senior Postdoc and Assistant Lecturer in Immunology at Koc University Hospital (Istanbul, Turkey) exploring auto and alloimmunity in children with autoimmune liver diseases and end stage liver diseases requiring liver transplantation, respectively. By virtue, since 2010, I have been researching the immuno(patho)physiology of AIH and the hepatic immune microenvironment, focusing primarily on CD4 T cell and regulatory T cell dynamics. Importantly, I have received grants and travel awards from prestigious European/American institutions such as EASL, AASLD, VVGE, and ESPGHAN.
For over a decade, I have been investigating the immunopathology of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) in mice and men. Particularly, I am researching the dynamics of Tregs (regulatory T cells) in the blood and liver of patients with AIH.