Cem Akin, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine

Dr. Akin is a licensed M.D., Ph.D., and a research scientist. He received his M.D. in 1988 and his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 1995. He then completed his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Louisville in 1996 and his fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland in 1999. Dr. Akin has been employed by the NIAID, NIH, first as a Research Fellow and then as a Staff Clinician until March 2004. His research in the area of mastocytosis holds critical importance. He has substantially contributed to our understanding of the pathogenesis of mastocytosis and the development of new therapeutic concepts.

For the past several years, Dr. Akin has been involved in studies dedicated to a number of aspects of mast cell disease. He has written and implemented several research protocols on mastocytosis, first at the NIH and then at the University of Michigan. He currently works on the effects of several investigational compounds, including tyrosine kinase inhibitors to study human mast cell biology and mastocytosis. He is interested in nanotechnological approaches that target mast cell function and survival.

Dr. Akin is author or co-author of 35 peer-reviewed papers, most of which were published in the last five years, and many review articles and book chapters on mast cell disease-related subjects. He has established an international reputation for his work in this area.