Dr. Billur Akkaya received her MD degree at Hacettepe University, Turkey in 2008 and D.Phil (PhD) degree at the University of Oxford, UK in 2013. Her graduate studies were funded by Felix Scholarship and Hugh Pilkington Scholarship given by the University of Oxford. She completed her postdoctoral studies at the NIH as a member of the Laboratory of Immune System Biology, NIAID and started her lab at The Ohio State University in 2021. Dr. Akkaya has studied T cell biology for more than a decade on a range of subjects including modulation of the PD-1 pathway in T cells, T cell metabolism and mechanisms of immune regulation by regulatory T cells (Tregs). Her research has been deemed worthy of recognition by prestigious awards such as NIH Fellows Award of Research Excellence, American Association of Immunology Thermofisher Trainee Achievement Award, International Cytokine and Interferon Society Sydney and Joan Pestka Award for Excellence in Cytokine and Interferon Research. She recently received NIAID New Innovators Award (DP2) to study the immunoinhibitory mechanisms used by antigen-specific Tregs in the contexts of autoimmunity and cancer.