Üsküdar Üniversitesi, in memory of its two esteemed professors, Prof. Dr. Tuncel Özden and Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik, who passed away three years apart, organized the 4th Personalized Treatment Meeting titled “Evidence-Based Diagnosis.” Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector, Chairman of the Board of Trustees Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, noted that both scientists enabled the implementation of original applications related to personalized treatment in Turkey. Stating that they act according to the principle of giving the right drug, in the right dose, and at the right time with a personalized treatment approach, Tarhan said that the drug with the least side effects is the drug not taken. Therefore, Tarhan noted that they prioritize drug sensitivity panels to prevent incorrect treatments, adding, “achieving this in psychiatric drugs also shows that we are ahead of our time.” The Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik Medical Biochemistry Laboratory was also opened at the ceremony.
Üsküdar Üniversitesi commemorated Prof. Dr. Salih Tuncel Özden, Director of the Üsküdar Üniversitesi Advanced Toxicology Analysis Laboratory, who passed away on February 5, 2017, and Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik, Director of the Medical Biochemistry Laboratory and Biochemistry Specialist, who lost his life due to an illness on August 18, 2020. The 4th Personalized Treatment Meeting, organized under the title "Evidence-Based Diagnosis," was held in a phygital format due to pandemic conditions. The ceremony, held at Üsküdar Üniversitesi Nermin Tarhan Conference Hall, was attended by Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik's children Pelin Şeker, Özer Atik, Rengin Atik, and Biochemistry Specialist and Academy & Tetra Laboratories Coordinator Nezihi Burdurlu. Due to pandemic measures, Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik's wife Dilek Atik and Prof. Dr. Tuncel Özden's wife Seçkin Özden followed the program online.
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “They enabled us to implement original personalized treatment practices in Turkey”
Üsküdar Üniversitesi Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Trustees Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan stated that the 4th Personalized Treatment Meeting, organized to commemorate Prof. Dr. Tuncel Özden and Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik, has almost become a tradition and that they wish to continue this tradition. Tarhan said, "Both of our professors are the people who enabled us to implement original personalized treatment practices in Turkey," and added, "Professor Tuncel came from Ankara every week in the 2008s. He established the system, shared his immense experience with us in developing all standards, creating samples, and at every stage. After losing Professor Tuncel, we started working with Professor Uğur, whom we knew from GATA. Professor Uğur was a sincere, honest person whose words matched his actions, and he managed to be both right and kind. There are some outspoken people who can be hurtful. He was not like that. He would not give up on being right and just, and while doing so, he would not hurt anyone; he would hurt himself. I wish he hadn't worn himself out so much."
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “We have carried out significant studies on personalized treatment”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan stated that he first met Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik in 1988 at Haydarpaşa GATA while serving as an assistant professor, and that he received a lot of help from him on many subjects. He added that they carried out very important studies on personalized treatment with Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik. Tarhan noted that they attended an international congress together and presented on personalized treatment, saying, "In 2008, while personalized treatment was not yet known in Turkey, we continued our work and activated our laboratory in 2009. We started working by acquiring our first device with our own resources. Later, we obtained the advanced toxicology device through the İSTKA Project. Our university also funded our third device within its own structure. With these devices, we are conducting work that no other university's psychiatry clinic in Turkey has been able to do. We can determine psychiatric drugs by looking at drug blood levels. Some institutions work with external laboratories, and they send samples abroad for analysis. We are currently performing these analyses here. For approximately 10 years, no alternative has emerged because it is very difficult."
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “Prof. Dr. Stephen Stahl talked about our studies”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan stated that Prof. Dr. Stephen Stahl, considered the foremost authority in clinical psychopharmacology worldwide, greatly admired their advanced toxicology studies during his visit to NPİSTANBUL Beyin Hastanesi in previous years. Tarhan said, "Prof. Dr. Stephen Stahl had asked Professor Uğur in their conversations if we truly conducted these studies. He had mentioned that at the 7,000-bed hospital where he worked in San Diego, they couldn't perform these studies here and sent samples out for analysis. This is a study that can be done with special effort. Stahl, whom we also granted a doctorate, later mentioned these studies on his page at Cambridge University."
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “We are able to implement a method in Turkey that can only be applied in a few places worldwide”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan emphasized that personalized treatment is being discussed more and more each day and stated that as a university and hospital, they are carrying out significant studies in this area: “Why is personalized treatment important? There is a saying, ‘The drug with the least side effects is the drug not taken.’ Every drug has side effects. Drug sensitivity panels have come to the forefront to prevent incorrect treatments. It is important whether the administered drug is in a toxic dose. Prof. Dr. Stahl had suggested we work on supratherapeutic levels. It was a method we hadn't applied until then. We researched the literature and found that those working on drug blood levels could work supratherapeutically. In very resistant cases that couldn't be remedied, we increased the drugs to supratherapeutic doses and observed extraordinary improvements. In fact, in patients who don't improve, the body cannot utilize the drug. In such cases, when progressing only with clinical observation, it is concluded that the drug is not beneficial. However, when we perform personalized diagnosis, it becomes clear whether the patient's liver metabolizes the drug. We even went a step further and did genetic profiling. We have routine measurements like these for treatment-resistant cases. We will publish the cases we have collected. The patients who come to us are always treatment-resistant. In these individuals, serotonin enzyme activities are found to be low. Consequently, the brain cannot pharmacodynamically utilize the drugs. We look at its pharmacokinetics in terms of the liver. We look at its pharmacodynamics in terms of reaching the target in the brain. We act according to the principle of giving personalized drugs, the right drug, in the right dose, and at the right time. Achieving this in psychiatric drugs also shows that we are ahead of our time. Currently, only some elite universities in the USA, supported by private funds, apply this. For example, Yale University has a Neuropsychiatry Clinic. They also apply the treatment we use. We are able to implement a method in Turkey that can only be applied in a few places worldwide. We operate a genetic and drug blood level monitoring laboratory for personalized treatment.”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “They have contributed to us being at the forefront of global studies”
Tarhan stated that the studies conducted in this laboratory have been published by many academicians, adding, "Professor Uğur was also a master in publications. When we said 'let's do a study,' he could conduct retrospective studies for hours. Past results are still available. He provided laboratory results, such as which drug we administered and in what dose, by comparing them with global data. All of these were studies aligned with the direction of neuropsychiatry worldwide. Among the people who contributed to us being at the forefront of global studies are Professor Uğur and Professor Tuncel."
Her student Büşra Turan shared her feelings
Üsküdar Üniversitesi Medical Biochemistry Laboratory Specialist Büşra Turan stated that she was very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik, saying, “During this period, I gained a lot both for my career and my personal development. His endless life energy, his ever-smiling face, his diligence, and his constant address to us as 'my child' will forever exist in a corner of our lives.”
Nezihi Burdurlu: “I am sure that Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik lives in all our hearts with his quality”
After the opening speeches, the panel session began. Biochemistry Specialist and Academy & Tetra Laboratories Coordinator Nezihi Burdurlu emphasized the importance of external quality control in laboratory services in his speech titled “Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik and Good Laboratory Practice Methods.” Burdurlu spoke about the development of external quality control worldwide and in Turkey, noting that external and internal quality control programs are established in laboratories for healthier results. Burdurlu said, "While quality management is carried out this way in laboratories, when it comes to how quality can be created in people, Professor Uğur Atik immediately comes to my mind. He was truly an exemplary person, who provided us with incredible memories as described here, a father and an elder brother in terms of quality, and it will never be possible for us to forget his constant presence as a father figure to all of us, just as he was to the Atik family. I am sure he lives in all our hearts with his quality."
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Burak Yavuz Çimen: “The saying ‘Honor is not taken from a position, but given to a position’ reminds me of my professor Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik”
Prof. Dr. Mehmet Burak Yavuz Çimen, faculty member of the Medical Biochemistry Department at Mersin University Faculty of Medicine, connected online to the ceremony and delivered a speech titled "Evidence-Based: 'Sharaf-ul Makan bi'l Makin'." Prof. Dr. Çimen spoke about his professor, Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik, his scientific works, and the communication he established with his students and colleagues. Presenting photographs and excerpts from Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik's life, Prof. Dr. Çimen stated that the saying "Honor is not taken from a position, but given to a position" always reminded him of Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik, and expressed that he was a person who served as an example to his students, colleagues, and those around him, an elder brother who lived his life to the fullest.
Özer Atik: “Our family’s goal is to be able to stand like our father throughout our lives”
Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik’s son Özer Atik thanked Üsküdar Üniversitesi and said, “I see a photograph of my father over there. I think this is the place, he was standing like this. I am now standing at the same podium. Our entire family's lifelong goal will be to be able to stand just as he did for the rest of our lives.”
At the ceremony, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan presented the "Feeling Human" sculpture to Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik's children, Pelin Şeker and Özer Atik, in memory of the day.
Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik Medical Biochemistry Laboratory Opened…
At the end of the program, which was also broadcast live on ÜÜTV, the Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik Medical Biochemistry Laboratory, named after Prof. Dr. Uğur Atik, located at Üsküdar Üniversitesi, was also opened.
Pınar Şeker, the daughter of the late Atik, who experienced emotional moments at the opening, said: “The opening of a laboratory with my father’s name, and his name being kept alive here, made us very happy. The Üsküdar family stood by us at every stage. I thank them very much for their interest and respect.”
