Assist. Prof. Dr. Esra Demir Unal | Optical Bioimaging Research| Best Researcher Award

Dr. Esra Demir Ünal is a board-certified neurologist and academic clinician serving as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Neurology at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University School of Medicine and as Chief of the Movement Disorders Clinic at Ankara City Hospital. Her clinical expertise encompasses movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke, with particular specialization in advanced device-assisted and infusion therapies such as Deep Brain Stimulation management, Duodopa intestinal gel, apomorphine pump treatments, and botulinum toxin applications for dystonia and tremor. Alongside supervising neurology residents and coordinating complex outpatient services, she leads translational neuroscience research within the AYBU Department of Neuroscience Laboratory. Her research integrates quantitative electroencephalography, artificial intelligence–based signal analysis, neuroimaging, and molecular biomarkers to identify early diagnostic and prognostic indicators of neurodegeneration, visual pathway dysfunction, atherosclerotic contributions in Parkinson’s disease, and oxidative stress markers in stroke. Dr. Demir Ünal has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific documents, accumulating over 600 scholarly citations, with a current h-index of 18, reflecting sustained impact across clinical and translational neuroscience. Her work has received international recognition from professional neurological societies, and her academic vision centers on redefining early neurological diagnosis through the convergence of biophysical biomarkers, computational modeling, and clinically scalable technologies.