Esin Gumustekin
Founder and President
Esin Gumustekin, the founder and president of the Brain Exercise Initiative, is an MD/JD candidate at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) and Harvard Law School. She is a recipient of the DGSOM Dean’s Merit Based Scholarship. Esin graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA with a B.S. in Neuroscience and 4.0 cumulative GPA in 2021. At UCLA, she received the Chancellor’s Service Award and UCLA Library Prize for Humanities and Social Science. She was a Program Development Team Member for the Learning Assistant Program and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Researcher of the Ozcan Research Group. She is a co-author of 4 scientific manuscripts, three of which are published in Nature. Some of her earlier recognitions include being Salutatorian of her high school, Francis Parker, and being invited to present her research at the Oncofertility Consortium at Northwestern University’s School of Medicine.
Hatice Ceylan Koydemir, Ph.D.
Dr. Hatice Ceylan Koydemir received her B.Sc. degree in Environmental Engineering and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey in 2004, 2007, and 2013, respectively. From 2010 to 2013, she was a researcher with METU-MEMS Research and Application Center. In August 2013, she joined The Ozcan Research Group at UCLA as a postdoctoral researcher. Currently, she is the Assistant Project Scientist in the Ozcan Group, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Mentor and a NSF PATHS-UP ERC Scholar. Her current research interests include microelectromechanical systems based biosensors, micro-fabrication technologies, and lab-on-a-chip devices at the point of care. Dr. Koydemir is a co-author of 19 peer reviewed publications in major scientific journals, has given more than 50 oral presentations at conferences and holds 3 issued patents.
Cevdet Samikoglu
Mr. Cevdet Samikoglu is the President and Chief Financial Officer of Samumed, a San Diego based biotech company that is a leader in medical research and the development of tissue level regeneration. Prior to Samumed, Mr. Samikoglu was a public and private investor, entrepreneur and a former investment banker. He was the Co-Founder, Portfolio Manager and a Partner of Greywolf Capital Management LP, a New York-based investment fund managing capital in different strategies. Prior to forming Greywolf, he was the Director of Research and a Portfolio Manager of Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Investing Group. Mr. Samikoglu began his career at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he spent nine years, both as a proprietary investor and as an investment banker. He received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and his B.A. in Economics from Hamilton College.
Arman Oruc
Mr. Arman Oruc is the Chief Legal Officer of Samumed, a San Diego based biotech company that is a leader in medical research and the development of tissue level regeneration. Prior to Samumed, Mr. Oruc was a Partner and a Co-Founder of the Washington, D.C. office of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. He has represented clients from a wide range of industries including numerous Fortune 500 companies and has been recognized for his expertise by numerous trade publications, including Chambers and WhosWhoLegal. In addition to regulatory work in front of U.S. and non-U.S. agencies, he has handled business-critical litigations involving intellectual property and antitrust laws, and has advised on marketing, pricing, product roadmaps, as well as dealings with competitors. He received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, M.Phil. in Economics from Cambridge University and a B.A. in Economics from Skidmore College.
