Nükte Goc first came to Yale from Bahcesehir University in Istanbul to do an internship in the School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery. She was so successful, she returned after graduation as a research associate to continue her research into the genetic basis of developmental brain disorders through genomic sequencing. Nükte is particularly interested in conditions such as autism and microcephaly that are much more common in consanguineous births, children born to parents who are blood relatives.
In Depth
Student Spotlight – Nükte Goc
The amount of data generated by sequencing is vast, and Nükte came to realize that biostatistics is a key part of the training she would need to continue in this research. She is also eager to disseminate her findings back in her country, Turkey, where marriages among cousins is quite common. As she embarks on her MPH studies in biostatistics, she plans to continue to do research in Dr. Gunel’s lab in Neurosurgery and develop educational programming in Turkey to address this public health problem.