Oktay Gasimov, Institute of Biophysics of ANAS, Azerbaijan

Oktay K. Gasimov(born 04 August 1958) is a biophysicist and corresponding member of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. He is a professor of Biophysics and currently holds the position of General Director of the Institute of Biophysics of the Ministry of Scienceand Education Republic of Azerbaijan. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Physics at Baku State University in 1979, his Ph.D. (Baku State University) and Dr.Sci. (Institute of Chemical Physics after H.H. Semyenov, Moscow) in Biophysics and Ecology in 1988and 1993, respectively.In 1996, Prof. Gasimov was invited to the Eye Pathology Laboratory at Jules Stein Eye Institute, UCLA School of Medicine to lead a team of researchers to investigate tear lipocalin structure and function. During his stay atUCLA from 1996-2015, Oktay Gasimov has been an instrumental member of a team that developed the novel method of Site-Directed Tryptophan Fluorescence, in studying the structure of proteins in solution. This is an exciting method to study the protein structure-function relationship.In 2015, Prof. Gasimov left UCLA for the Institute of Physics of ANAS as head of the laboratory.Since 2016, Prof. Gasimov is a director of the newly established Institute of Biophysics.Currently, his research interest is focused on studying the differences in membrane dynamics of healthy and cancer cells. Prof. Gasimov is also working on protein aggregation mechanisms related to various diseases, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc.