Hesna Yiğit Short Biography

Hesna Yiğit - Short Biography

Hesna Yiğit is a Research Investigator II, at Bristol-Myers Squibb Infectious Diseases Virology Department in Wallingford, CT, USA. She worked on cefepime, a forth generation cephalosporin and received two award for her work from the director. Her current research involves small molecule drug discovery and development against Hepatitis C, one of the major causes of liver cancers and liver transplants.

She was born in Erzurum 1968. She completed elementary school at Saadet Dere, Avcilar, Istanbul. She graduated from Istanbul 50. Yil Avcilar Insa Lisesi in 1985. She received her B.S. in Biology in 1989 with the highest GPA, from Istanbul University. 1989-1992 she was a teacher; science, biology and chemistry at middle and high schools, in Sütçüler-Isparta and Sehremini-Istanbul. She received a scholarship for M.S. and PhD in USA, from M.E.B with the highest score in the national selection exam. She completed her M.S. in Bacteriology/Molecular Biology in 1994 and her Ph.D. in 1998 from University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA. She was awarded with American Society for Microbiology Postdoctoral Fellowship to study at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA, 1998-2000.

She joined Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2000 and since than working on antibacterial and antiviral small molecule drug discovery and development projects. She also teaches undergraduate microbiology with laboratory at the community collages in her spare time since 2006. She also reviews papers for key journals of her field.

She has publications in leading journals of her filed such as Journal of Bacteriology and Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and presented in international meetings.