From Forensic Toxicology to Wastewater-Based Epidemiology: Insights from Türkiye

Dr Merve Kuloglu Genc will provide an overview of the Institute of Forensic Sciences and Legal Medicine at Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa and outline the main research activities of its Forensic Toxicology Laboratory. The presentation will cover a range of ongoing studies conducted by the TOXLAB team, addressing various topics relevant to forensic sciences and involving analytical method development, chromatographic analyses, and toxicological investigations. The talk will also provide an overview of current nation-wide wastewater-based epidemiology campaigns conducted to monitor substance use trends and emerging threats, bridging forensic science with public health and environmental intelligence.

Merve Kuloglu Genc is currently an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Forensic Sciences and Legal Medicine, Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa. She received her Bachelor Degree on Chemistry at the Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey in 2014 and her MSc in Forensic Analysis at Kingston University London in 2015. Her main research focuses on developing analytical methods for the detection and monitoring of licit and illicit drugs via wastewater-based epidemiology. She carries out toxicological studies, which focus on substance groups such as drugs of abuse, NPS, pharmaceuticals etc. with HPLC, GC-MS and LC-MS/MS systems.