Company
GlakoLens is a medical devices company developing innovative biosensors based on proprietary technology, first of which is a non-invasive continuous intra-ocular pressure (IOP) monitoring device. The company’s strategy is to focus on introducing a single, state-of-the-art product at a time.
As a technological spin-off from Boğaziçi University, GlakoLens was founded in 2017 by three distinguished researchers conducting research on biosensors, integrated circuits, MEMS and electro-optical systems. They have been working together for more than a decade and have successfully completed several international collaborative R&D projects.
Team
The founders of GlakoLens have received various prestigious awards regarding their research. Among these awards, TÜBİTAK nationwide research encouragement award (Günhan Dündar), Turkish Academy of Sciences research award (Arda D. Yalçınkaya), and Young Scientist Award by the Science Academy in Turkey and Innovator under 35 Award from MIT Tech Review (Hamdi Torun) are the most prestigious ones to be mentioned. Together, for their work on biosensors, they have received the Technology award from the Elginkan Foundation.

Arda Deniz Yalçınkaya, PhD
Co-Founder
Board Member

Günhan Dündar, PhD
Co-Founder
Board Member

Hamdi Torun, PhD
Co-Founder
Board Member

Özgür Kaya, MSc
Managing Director
Özgür is a biomedical engineer who has contributed to over 10 R&D projects in various roles (project manager, researcher, design engineer, and author). His experience in the areas of project management, electronics engineering and biomedical engineering combined with his background (family of medical doctors) makes him the ideal person to lead a team of excellent engineers working in an interdisciplinary field. He previously worked as a research assistant at Koç University, Erasmus MC, and Boğaziçi University. Özgür Kaya acquired his BSc degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering at Koç University and MSc degree in Biomedical Engineering at TU Delft. He is about to complete his PhD in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Boğaziçi University. Özgür Kaya holds certificates for applied entrepreneurship, project management, laboratory animal experimentation and good clinical practices. He is also an occupational health and safety specialist (class C).

Khalid Mentak, PhD
Scientific & Business Consultant

Afsun Şahin, MD Ophthalmology Consultant

Başak Baranoğlu Demirci
Regulatory & Quality Consultant
Başak (METU MsBiology 1997, Bilkent MBA 1999) started her career in 1999 and accomplished all roles from entry level to director of the quality management systems for medical devices. Following her senior management positions at Bıçakcılar and Alvimedica companies, she established AdviQual to provide consultancy and technical training services in the field of quality, particularly for medical devices.
AdviQual provides solutions to medical device manufacturers in every aspect with it’s team of local and foreign experts, plus AdviQual’s international partners. The main services offered by AdviQual are quality management, risk assessment, sterilization, clinical evaluation, design and technical file for CE application, production validation, biocompatibility tests, FDA applications and licensing issues.

Ayda Mamaghani
R&D Engineer
Ayda Mamaghani is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey. She received her B.S. degree from Azad University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran, in 2007, her M.S. degree from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2012, all in electrical engineering. Her studies focus on the improvement of metamaterials for biosensing and bioelectronics applications. She is currently working as a research engineer at GlakoLens to develop metamaterial-based passive biosensors for non-invasive continuous intraocular pressure (IOP) monitoring.

Oğuz Kaan Erden
R&D Engineer
Oğuz received his BSc degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Istanbul Bilgi University. Later on, he carried on his graduate studies at Boğaziçi University on optical biomedical sensors. His background works contain biosensors, biomedical optics, and MEMS manufacturing in the cleanroom. He is working in GlakoLens as an R&D Engineer, responsible for the design and development of the contact lenses. He is currently working towards his Ph.D. degree at Boğaziçi University, focusing on the design, characterization, and fabrication of metamaterial-based sensors for biosensing applications.

Cansu Bozkaya
Assistant Quality Manager
Cansu received her BSc degree in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University, Turkey. She is working in GlakoLens as Assistant Quality Manager, responsible of implementation of quality management system for medical devices and project scheduling and budgeting. She is currently working towards her MSc degree at Boğaziçi University, Industrial Engineering department.

Morteza Teymoori
R&D Engineer
Morteza recieved his Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from University of Isfahan. Later he joined Bogazici University, Institute of Biomedical Enineering for his graduate studies at 2016. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. He has a research background in Cardiovascular Biomechanics, Tissue Engineering, Smart materials for actuator design. He worked as the cleanroom intern for over a year in Bogazici University’s center for LifeSciences. He is currently working on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

Ulaş Onur Dedeoğlu
R&D Engineer
Ulaş received his bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering from Yaşar University, İzmir. He worked on several projects involving customized ERP systems as a freelancer software engineer during his undergraduate studies. He is currently working on the development of R&D tools and software related solutions at GlakoLens.

Erhan Kılıçözlü MA, Advisor
Board Member
Erhan graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a degree in mechanical engineering. He worked at GE’s power generation division after which he got an MBA and MS degree in Finance from the University of Maryland College Park. Erhan worked as a trader and fund manager in Hong Kong, New York, Moscow and London for almost 20 years. He co-founded ACT Venture Partners, an early stage technology fund. His current portfolio includes companies focused on IoT, Medical-tech, Telecom, Cyber security, Enterprise software and Marketing technologies. Erhan is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Murat Akman, MSc
Board Member
Advisor
Murat Akman worked as an executive in the Information Technology sector at various multinational and national companies around the globe (in the USA, Turkey and the People’s Republic of China). He was a managing director in six successful start-ups and joint ventures (Digital Equipment Corporation – Turkey, KOÇ-Systems Connect Group, Superonline, Beijing RAM, QAD/Turkey). In 2009, he returned to his alma mater to set up and jump-start Technology Transfer and Commercialization Department. Murat Akman received his BSc (1982) and MSc (1985) degrees from Boğaziçi University.