Ilknur Telkes, Ph.D., M.S.

Biography

Dr. Ilknur Telkes received her B.S. degree (2010) in Biological Sciences and M.S. degree (2012) in Medical Informatics from Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey. She earned her Ph.D. degree (2017) in Biomedical Engineering from University of Houston and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Albany Medical College, NY. Dr. Telkes participated the 2021-2022 Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP) at Albany Medical College, which is designed to enhance the academic and professional development of assistant professors in clinical and basic science departments through an intensive, year-long curriculum focused on research, teaching and leadership.

Dr. Telkes is an engineer-scientist with more than 10 years of experience in the electrophysiological data recordings, application of neural engineering and biomedical signal processing techniques for neuromarker discovery and cultivating algorithms for improving clinical neuromodulation therapies. Her doctoral studies focused on the investigation of spatio-spectral dynamics of local field potentials (LFPs), and their functional use in movement disorders and deep brain stimulation (DBS). In 2017, she joined the Pilitsis lab where she continued studying the Parkinson’s disease phenotypes in patients with DBS and began investigating the neural markers of chronic pain in patients with spinal cord stimulation (SCS) implants and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. With her work in chronic pain, Dr. Telkes received NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award in 2020.

In the summer 2022, Dr. Telkes joined the Department of Biomedical Science at the Florida Atlantic University, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. Her current research focuses on developing quantified, neural signatures of pain relief using methods from a variety of disciplines (e.g., biomedical/electrical engineering, neurosurgery, neurology, neuroscience). Additionally, her research interests involve intraoperative spinal motor mapping in patients with neuropathic pain, developing tools to improve intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring, developing machine learning algorithms to predict patient response to neuromodulation treatments, and characterizing invasive and non-invasive neural signatures in disorders such as Tourette Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Dr. Telkes is currently serving on the North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) Education and Research Committees, on the Editorial Board of Neuromodulatory Interventions (Specialty section of Frontiers in Pain Research). She is Guest Editor in Frontiers in Neuroscience and Frontiers in Pain Research. Previously, she served as the co-director of the NANS Neuromodulation Journal Club in 2020-2022, as the member of the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Steering Committee in 2020-2022, and as the Representative of AMC at the Capital District Postdoctoral Association (CDPA).

Education

• 2010: B.S. Biology (Neuroscience), Middle East Technical University (METU/ODTU), Turkey
• 2012: M.S. Medical Informatics (Neuroscience-Track), Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey
• 2017: Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering (Neural Engineering and Rehabilitation), University of Houston, Houston, Texas
• 2022: Post-Doctoral Fellow (Translational Neuroscience), Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Albany Medical College, Albany, New York

Work History

• 2022-Present: Assistant Professor of Biomedical Science (Tenure Track), Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL
• 2017-2022: Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY

Scholarly Activity

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Telkes I, Hadanny A, DiMarzio M, Chitnis G, Paniccioli S, O'Connor K, Grey R, McCarthy K, Khazen O, McLaughlin B, Pilitsis J. High-resolution Spinal Motor Mapping using Thoracic Spinal Cord Stimulation in Patients with Chronic Pain. Neurosurgery. 2022 Sep 1;91(3):459-469. PMID: 35876669. *Selected to be highlighted under CNS Spotlight
• Hadanny A, Harland T, Khazen O, DiMarizo M, Marchese A, Telkes I, Sukul V, Pilitsis JG. Development of Machine Learning-Based Models to Predict Treatment Response to Spinal Cord Stimulation. Neurosurg. 2022 Feb 22. PMID: 35179133.
• DiMarzio M, Madhavan R, Hancu I, Fiveland E, Prusik J, Joel S, Gillogly M, Telkes I, Staudt MD, Durphy J, Shin D, Pilitsis JG. Use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging to Assess Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation Frequency Changes on Brain Activation in Parkinson Disease. Neurosurg. 2021 Feb;88(2):356-65. *Selected to be highlighted under CNS Spotlight
• Telkes I, Hancu M, Paniccioli S, Grey R, Briotte M, McCarthy K, Raviv N, and Pilitsis J. Differences in EEG patterns between tonic and high frequency spinal cord stimulation in chronic pain patients. Clin Neurophysiol. 2020 May 7;131(8):1731-1740.
• Telkes I, Sabourin S, Durphy J, Adam O, Vishad S, Raviv N, Staudth MD, Pilitsis JG. Functional use of directional local field potentials in the subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation. Front Hum Neurosci. 2020 April 28; 14:145
• Telkes I, Viswanathan A, Jimenez-Shahed J, Abosch A, Ozturk M, Gupte A, Jankovic J, Ince NF. Local field potentials of subthalamic nucleus contain electrophysiological footprints of motor subtypes of Parkinson's disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Sep 4;115(36): E8567-E8576 (Epub 2018 Aug 21). *Featured on MedicalXpress, 23 Aug 2018; AlzForum, 26 Aug 2018

View Bibliography

Honors and Awards

• 2023: North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) Krishna Kumar Young Investigator Award, Las Vegas, NV
• 2022: Travel Award, North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS) Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL
• 2021: Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics December Employee of the Month
• 2021: Ronald R. Tasker Young Investigator Award, Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), Austin, TX *given to the highest-ranked abstract submitted for the CNS Annual Meeting concerning pain research
• 2020: NIH/NINDS K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award *only awardee in the last 5 years at Albany Medical College
• 2019: Best Poster Award on Deep Brain Stimulation, NANS Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV
• 2017: Junior Scientist Award & Invited presenter, NANS Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV
• 2017: Travel Grant, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX
• 2015: Graduate Research Assistantship, University of Houston, Houston, TX
• 2014: Travel Grant, NANS Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV
• 2014: The Texas Public Education Grant (TPEG) for International Students Award, Houston, TX
• 2014: Third Place Poster Award, 4th Annual NeuroEngineering Symposium, BioScience Research Collaborative, Houston, TX
• 2013: Graduate Tuition Fellowship (Full), University of Houston, Houston, TX
• 2013: Graduate Research Assistantship, National Science Foundation Grant (NSF)
• 2011: Travel Grant, 6th Biennial International Neuroscience Graduate Summer School, Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Izmir, Turkey
• 2010: High Education Scholarship of Turkey Medical Informatics Association, Turkey

Professional Societies

• North American Neuromodulation Society (NANS)
• NANS Women in Neuromodulation (WIN)
• International Neuromodulation Society (INS)
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS)
• International Association for the Study of the Pain (IASP)
• New York Academy of Sciences

Active Funding

• NIH K99/R00 NS119672
  PI: I. Telkes
  Assessment of EEG Responses to Spinal Cord Stimulation Waveforms in Chronic Pain Patients
  Project Period: 2020-2025
• NIH U44 NS115111
  Role: Co-Investigator
  High-Resolution Spinal Cord Stimulation for Non-Opioid Treatment of Neuropathic Pain
  Project Period: 2019-2024