The 6th Suna Kıraç Conference was held online on 19-20 April 2024 at Koç University. The Conference entitled "Advances in Gene and Molecular Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases: Recent Subcellular and Clinical Insights" kicked off with the Welcome Address of İpek Kıraç and was the first meeting after the passing of Suna Kıraç. The eleven speakers from prestigious institutions in the USA and Europe, such as UMass, Harvard, Kings College London, NIH, Johns Hopkins and Oxford Universities, were world authorities and were brought together considering their multifaceted approach to the subject. As always, the speakers contributed unpublished most recent studies to the meeting.
Topics, including discovery of novel genes and gene targeting, subcellular insights to selective vulnerability, non-neuronal pathology in neurodegenerative diseases and dysfunction of RNA processing in circuit-specific neurologic diseases were exhaustively discussed. The last lecture of the meeting, dedicated to the memory of Suna Kıraç, delineated the genetic structure of the ethnically very wealthy Anatolian peninsula as a rich genetic pool and the complex molecular architecture of ALS in Turkey, so far an under-investigated population at the molecular level. The meeting successfully concluded with an interactive session on sporadic ALS.
On October 11, International Day of the Girl, Suna’nın Kızları organized the “Girls Stronger Together Forum” in Hatay, where girls shared their ideas on making their city safer, more accessible, and more inclusive.
Pera Museum introduces two new publications accompanying its current exhibitions: Swedish glass artist Åsa Jungnelius’ first solo exhibition in Turkey, A Verse, Written with Earth, Fire, Water, and Air and Feelings in Common: Works from the British Council Collection.
The exhibition “The Photography Studio of an Adventurous Architect: Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu 1893–1982”, held at the Istanbul Research Institute of the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation, is now accessible through an online 3D tour.