Published 3/12/2025 by Praniti Gulyani
Irmak Atilgan is a second-year-student at UC Berkeley from Turkey who also works a part-time job as a Residential Safety Ambassador. At least three times a week, after a grueling day of classes, Irmak reaches the Residence Halls at 9 pm— all ready to clock in for her work shift. As we wait to clock in, Irmak has often spoken to me about her experiences as an international student, and I remember being distinctly taken aback by the similar nature of our stories. Both of us love what we study, miss our families back home, and seek solace in the spirit of community that illuminates the UC Berkeley campus.
“I think the best part about my Cal experience is the Turkish Community we have on campus. Compared to other US colleges, I think the Turkish Community here is relatively bigger, but we’re also so tight knit. The Turkish Student Association throws events all the time, and even if you’re not a member of the association, you can still be friends with them. I think it’s because we came such a long distance from home and we’re so few in number that we all know each other. It’s one of the places that I went to the most for support when I first came to Berkeley and it was so far away from everything I’ve known,” she says. “So it was like finding a piece of home,” I respond, as Irmak nods her head in response. “You have to search for that,” she says. “Since there’s not a lot of Turkish people in the USA, that automatically meant that there wasn’t a lot of Turkish food, Turkish music etc., and you really need to go out there and look for it.”
Irmak is an Intended Molecular and Cellular Biology and Business Double Major who is also pursuing a Minor in Data Science. Intrigued by her unique subject combination, I ask her to talk a little more about it. “My interest in Molecular and Cellular Biology is Genetics, and I’m definitely interested in pursuing a PhD and working on disease treatment. But with the way the world is going around, the technologies are so new and expensive, which makes it harder for them to get to the people who actually need them. I want to get into this newly growing industry as an entrepreneur and figure out a financial solution that helps patients get these technologies at an affordable cost,” she explains.
“The work you do is so diverse. What is your favorite part about it?” I ask Irmak, who laughs in response. I know this laugh all too well. It is a demonstration of reflective mirth that almost all Berkeley students have experienced at some point in their undergraduate career, as they reflect on the way Cal has transformed their academic interests. Sure enough, Irmak moves on to talk about how a biotech conference changed her mind. “If you asked me a year ago, I would say that I love working in the lab. I love lab work! But after this conference, I got to interact with people and understand what’s going on in the industry. I still really love research. Whenever I go into the lab, I go in enthusiastically and do experiments like it's my art or something, but the dynamic and the inviting world of entrepreneurship is unimaginable. It gives me such a high!”
How could science be artistic? Drawn in by Irmak’s innovative analogy, I ask her to explain more about it. “It’s a lot of detailed work. So far, I’ve done a lot of biochemistry that involves chemical synthesis. You need to get creative with it, and be very precise with it. If you do it with a lot of passion, you take care of your research like a baby and develop it. It becomes like your art,” she says. I’m still gripped by the association of art and science. Irmak is connecting both these seemingly disparate fields in the most elegant way possible, and I want to know more. “Since I worked on synthesis, my supervisor and I were coming up with molecules that were going to be the solution to the problem the lab was researching. We would draw up a molecule on a board, and we would create it in the lab. If that didn’t work, we would tweak it and alter it. Again and again, you could keep tweaking and altering a molecule till you find a solution that sticks,” she says. That’s when I’m able to identify the similarities between the creation of a molecule and the art of sculpting. Like a dedicated artisan molds pieces of clay to create unique sculptures, Irmak molds molecules to create genetic-powered solutions for major diseases.
“What’s that one disease that you really want to find a solution for?” I ask. “That’s a very good question. You see, genetic treatments are very new, and the field is still evolving. Right now, there’s nothing on the market except Beta thalassemia. That’s the only disease there is a genetic/CRISPR treatment for. I don’t know if it’s commercialized or on the market yet, but it’s definitely FDA approved. I think they got the approval last year. As they’re putting it on the market, all over the industry, people are working on finding solutions for cancer, Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Anti-aging and even Parkinson’s disease. These are very upbeat topics, and I feel that in the next five years, we’re going to find solutions to all of them,” she says, her voice optimistic and hopeful.
As I conclude our conversation, I thank Irmark for her time and head homewards. It has started to rain, and delicate drops fall from the sky like moist crystals. They touch the ground, nourish the Earth and as they spiral around the tiny saplings that are growing outside the door, I finally witness the almost familial relationship between art and science that Irmak had taught me about.