Serra Akbas Kaya, PhD

Serra Akbas Kaya, PhD, is a computational musculoskeletal biologist in the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Laboratory of Skeletal Mechanobiology (Alliston Lab). Her research integrates biomechanics, transcriptomics, and human genomic data to study the molecular and mechanical mechanisms underlying bone quality and skeletal disease.

Her work focuses on connecting molecular, cellular, and tissue-level processes to understand how biochemical and physical signals regulate skeletal development, maintenance, and repair. A key area of her research is building mouse-to-human translational frameworks that integrate RNA sequencing and genome-wide association studies to identify conserved mechanisms of bone biology relevant to skeletal regeneration and disease. She also develops computational resources that support cross-species analysis in musculoskeletal research.

Dr. Kaya received her BS in Chemical Engineering from Boğaziçi University and her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from The City College of New York. She completed her postdoctoral training in the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in the Laboratory of Skeletal Mechanobiology and continued as an Assistant Researcher prior to her current appointment.

In addition to her research, Dr. Kaya is actively engaged in education and mentorship at UCSF. She has directed the Musculoskeletal Center Summer Research Course and mentors trainees at multiple levels, supporting training in computational biology, experimental design, and genomic analysis.