Dr. Baltan is Endowed Professor and Vice Chair for Research of Anesthesiology and Peri-Operative Medicine (APOM) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Dr. Baltan grew up in Ankara, Turkey and earned her medical degree from Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey and a PhD in Neurophysiology from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. After completing an American Heart and Stroke fellowship at Neurology Department at Washington University, St. Louis, MO she joined Neurology Department at University of Washington, Seattle, WA and continued to her academic career as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor. In 2011 Dr. Baltan joined Neurosciences and Neurological Institute at the Cleveland Clinic until she joined OHSU in 2019 as Professor and Vice Chair of Basic Research.

Her research focuses on mechanisms of white matter injury to develop ideal stroke therapeutics that are directed towards neuronal and axonal protection across age, to restore function when applied after injury. Experimental approaches in her lab include optic nerve and corpus callosum slice models, employing electrophysiological recordings, and advanced microscopy techniques such as confocal, two-photon microscopy and 3D electron microscopy. The current focus of her lab is on elucidating the mechanisms of preconditioning conferred by Class I HDAC inhibition in young and aging white matter and the gene regulatory mechanisms underlying this protective phenomenon. Studying on the role of protein acetylation and mitochondrial dynamics in white matter stroke expands her findings to neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimer ’s disease that involve white matter. Her research is funded by multiple NIH grants.

Dr. Baltan serves on the editorial boards of several journals including Conditional Medicine, Translational Stroke Research, Stroke and has become a Handling Editor for ASN Neuro in 2021. Dr. Baltan has been a member of the National Institutes of Health Brain Injury and Neurovascular Pathologies (BINP) Study Section since 2012 and has become the Chair of BINP Study Section in 2020. She also serves as a member of the American Heart Association (AHA) Brain and Stroke Study Section. She has been the Chair of Membership Committee for ASN since 2013 and acts as a Council member of ASN in 2019.