Position

Senior Lecturer in Pharmacognosy and Natural Product Chemisty

Areas of Expertise

Antiprotozoal and antibacterial natural products; Type II fatty acid synthesis system (FAS-II); Menopause  and phytoestrogens; Antitumoral natural products from plants, marine macro- and microorganisms; Antioxidant natural products; Chemotaxonomy of plant metabolites

Biography

• BSc (Hons) in Pharmacy (Hacettepe University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara, Turkey)
• MSc (Hons) in Pharmacognosy (Hacettepe University, Mentor: Professor Dr Ihsan Calis)
• PhD (Hons) in Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, Mentor: Professor Dr Otto Sticher)
  Lecturer and Assistant Professor (Hacettepe University, Faculty of Pharmacy)
• Postdoctoral Training (Marine Natural Products, University of Utah, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, Mentor: Professor Dr Chris M. Ireland)
• Associate Professor (Turkey)
• Project Leader and Helmut Legerlotz Fellow (University of Zurich, Institute of Organic Chemistry, Zurich, Switzerland)
• Senior Lecturer Centre for Pharmacognosy and Phytotherapy, The School of Pharmacy, University of London) from 2006 onwards

Research Interests

• Mechanism (target)-based antiprotozoal screening of natural extracts.
  
• Discovery and development of antimalarial and antibacterial natural products targeting the type II fatty acid synthesis system (FAS-II), particularly the enoyl-ACP reductase (FabI) enzyme.
• Treatment of menopausal symptoms with phytomedicines and pure phytoestrogens- Identification of mechanism of action(s) and safety assessments.
• Drug discovery: antitumoral natural products from plants, marine macro- and microorganisms.
• Antioxidant natural products.
• Chemotaxonomy of plant metabolites.
  

Professional activities

• Advisory Editorial Board of Planta Medica
• Editorial Board of Phytochemistry Letters
• Editorial board of Marine Drugs
• Membership Secretary of Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE)

Honours and Awards

• Hacettepe University Student Science Motivation Award
• Ihsan Dogramaci; Award for Excellent Success in Education
• ETH-Zurich Medal for Ausgezeichnete Doktorarbeit (Excellent Doctoral Study of 1997)
• Dr Helmut Legerlotz Foundation Fellowship, University of Zurich, 2002-2005
• The Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE), Pierre Fabre Prize, 2004
  
• Egon Stahl Silver Medal of The Society for Medicinal Plant Research (GA) 2005

• A. Karioti, H. Skaltsa, A. Linden, R. Perozzo, R. Brun, D. Tasdemir, 2007. Anthecularin, A Novel Sesquiterpene Lactone from Anthemis auriculata with Antiprotozoal Activity. J. Org. Chem., 72, 8103-8106.
• D. Tasdemir, B. Topaloglu, R. Perozzo, R. Brun, R. O’Neill, N. M. Carballeira, X. Zhang, P.J. Tonge, A. Linden, P. Rüedi, 2007. Marine Natural Products from the Turkish Sponge Agelas oroides that Inhibit the Enoyl Reductases from Plasmodium falciparum, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Escherichia coli. Bioorg. Med. Chem., 15, 6834-6845.
• D. Tasdemir, G. Lack, R. Brun, P. Rüedi, L. Scapozza, R. Perozzo, 2006. Inhibition of Plasmodium falciparum Fatty Acid Biosynthesis: Evaluation of FabG, FabZ and FabI as Drug Targets for Flavonoids. J. Med. Chem., 49, 3345-3353.
• D. Tasdemir, M. Kaiser, R. Brun, V. Yardley, T.J. Schmidt, F. Tosun, P. Rüedi. 2006. Antitrypanosomal and Antileishmanial Activities of Flavonoids and Their Analogs: In Vitro, In Vivo, Structure-Activity Relationship, and Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Studies. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother., 50, 1352-1364.
• D. Tasdemir, R. Mallon, M. Greenstein, L.R. Feldberg, S.C. Kim, K. Collins, D. Wojciechowicz, G.C. Mangalindan, G.P. Concepción, M.K. Harper, C.M. Ireland,2002. Aldisine Alkaloids from the Philippine Sponge Stylissa massa are Potent Inhibitors of Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Kinase-1 (MEK-1)” J. Med. Chem., 45, 529-532.