Objective: Turkey's Council of Higher Education (CoHE) has started a funding program (CoHE 100/2000 Scholarship Program) since the Spring semester of 2017 to support selected PhD students throughout Turkey. However, this funding program has some fundamental contradictions with the regulations of both Dokuz Eylul University Graduate School of Health Sciences (DEU-GSHS) and the requirements of ORPHEUS (Organization of Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System) label awarded to DEU-GSHS in 2015. Consequently, the contradictions create a relatively stressful PhD process for these selected students. The aim of this study was to understand DEU-GSHS CoHE 100/2000 scholarship holders' opinions and expectations, as well as the conflicts on regulations they come across during their studies. Methods: Twenty-one CoHE 100/2000 students of DEU-GSHS filled out a survey that consists of 17 statements alongside their opinions on the subject. Results: Most students were aware of the conflicts among the institutional regulations, creating a stressful PhD environment for most of the participants. We believe that assignment of a student representative to be in charge of conveying those problems to authorities would be the best way to solve most of the issues mentioned throughout the article. Additionally, amelioration of career counselling, organization of regular meetings and providing the flexibility to extend the scholarship duration could improve PhD students' current conditions. Conclusion:This study reveals the urgent need of harmonizing the regulations of all the associated institutions involved in the PhD process of CoHE 100/2000 scholarship holders.

Introduction: Maternal regulatory T (Treg) cells play a pivotal role in establishing general immune homeostasis in the decidua for maintenance of pregnancy. We aimed in this study to investigate the relationship between mRNA expression of immunomodulatory genes and CD25+ Treg cells with early pregnancy losses. Methods: Our study included 3 groups of early pregnancy losses including sporadic spontaneous abortions, recurrent spontaneous abortions, sporadic spontaneous abortions post IVF treatment and the control group. We performed RT-PCR for analyzing mRNA expression levels of 6 immunomodulatory genes and CD25 immunohistochemistry for quantification of Treg cells. Results: Only FOXP3, CD274 (PDL1), and TGFβ1 mRNA expression levels were significantly decreased in the miscarriage groups in comparison to the control group, whereas there was no significant mRNA expression change of CD4, IL2RA, and IL10. We also found significantly lower number of CD25+ cells in the miscarriages. Conclusion: We conclude that decreased expression of FOXP3 and PD-L1 may play a significant role in the pathogenesis of spontaneous abortion cases whereas decreased expression of TGFβ1 gene may be associated with the occurrence of early loss in IVF-treated pregnancies. Additional immunoprofiling of Treg cell population is needed to quantify Treg cells in early pregnancy losses.

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Introduction Medulloblastoma is the most common pediatric central nervous tumor of high malignancy that has been classified into both histological subtypes and molecular subgroups by the 2016 World Health Organization classification. However, there is a still need to understand the genomic characteristics and predict the clinical course. The aim of the study is to investigate the significance of the methylation profiles in molecular subclassification and precision medicine of the disease. Methods The study enrolled 47 pediatric medulloblastoma patients. DNA methylation levels of KLF4, SPINT2, RASSF1A, EZH2, ZIC2, and PTCH1 genes were analyzed using methylation-specific pyrosequencing. The significance of the statistical relationship between methylation profiles and clinicopathological parameters including molecular subgroups and histological subtypes, the status of metastasis, and event-free survival were analyzed. Results DNA methylation analysis demonstrated that KLF4, PTCH1, and ZIC2 hypermethylation were associated with the SHH-activated subgroup, whereas both SPINT2 and RASSF1A hypermethylation were associated with metastatic disease. EZH2 gene was not methylated in any of the samples. Conclusion We think that customized DNA methylation profiling may be a useful tool in the molecular subclassification of pediatric medulloblastoma and a potential technical approach in precision medicine.

Training Tomorrow's Scientists 20 research institutions. At the end of their Ph.D. training, publishing 3 scientific papers and attending at least 1 national / 1 international meeting is mandatory. The programme is designed to produce highly skilled and motivated biochemists that are suitable for employment in the life-sciences or for further academic research.