Last year in February, while I was a volunteer running behind the scenes at the Hello Tomorrow Türkiye Summit 2024 to ensure the event went perfectly, I was unaware of how my story would unfold.
Wait a second, let's start from the beginning.
I am Nazlıcan, a senior student of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bahçeşehir University. In my first year of university, I realized the importance of connecting the technical knowledge and skills we acquire in academia with humanity, and I developed a keen interest in the world of entrepreneurship. This curiosity led me to resources, podcasts, training programs, and idea workshops, and I understood that building a sustainable future requires anchoring innovative ideas on deep scientific foundations, which is when I encountered the concept of "deep tech." The Deep Tech ecosystem was an area of immense potential where science was transformed to offer solutions to humanity's pressing problems. The global resources in this area were quite abundant; reports, ecosystem maps, case studies. However, I saw that information about the deep tech ecosystem in Türkiye was still very limited. During my research, the first address I came across was Hello Tomorrow Türkiye. I examined their website and followed their social media accounts.
A few months later, when a friend called me and said, "Volunteers are being sought for the Hello Tomorrow Türkiye Summit, would you be interested?" I thought, "This can't be a coincidence." Feeling that this call would drag me into a completely different world, I immediately joined the volunteer team. In February, my first interaction with Hello Tomorrow Türkiye during the HTT Summit 2024 came about through this volunteer opportunity.
Each person I met during the event was a source of inspiration for me. With every speaker I listened to, every entrepreneur whose booths I approached with excitement and asked questions, I knew I was witnessing the journey of curiosity, effort, and struggle accumulated over years into tangible outcomes. Deep tech ceased to be just a technical term and started to look like a way of life.
The people I met at HTT Summit 2024, the speeches I listened to, and the atmosphere I was a part of opened the door to a world where I could be not just a consumer of technology, but also a producer.
At the end of the event, while I was returning home tired but very happy, I had already started dreaming of being there the next year. And so it happened. As soon as the HTT Summit 2025 announcement post was shared, a message dropped into the inbox of HTT COO Hazal Tekman:
“Good evening, Ms. Hazal, I just saw the announcement for the Hello Tomorrow Türkiye summit that will take place on May 23rd on Instagram. I had a great time being part of the volunteer field team during the event last year. I wonder if a similar team will be formed this year? Also, is there an area where we can get involved from the beginning and provide more support?
-Regards, Nazlıcan”
Throughout the past year, I had put the deep tech ecosystem under the magnifying glass, examining Türkiye's potential, the challenges it faced, and our position compared to Europe and the world.
The technological initiatives developed in advanced fields, where engineering and scientific discoveries meet, required long R&D processes and high capital. The problems they aimed to solve were directly contributing to humanity and the planet, which was promising.
The deep tech segment that excited me the most was the ventures focusing on the real-world development and application of biotechnological studies, which I had seen in lessons, read about in books, and written essays on in exams. These ventures managed the "lab-to-market" transition process by directly transforming discoveries in fundamental sciences into clinical and industrial solutions.
Many exciting developments were very new and current. For instance, CASGEVY (exa-cel), the first CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing treatment approved by the FDA in 2023, had started to be offered for clinical use following its approval. Developed by CRISPR Therapeutics and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, this treatment allows the patient's stem cells to be edited in a laboratory environment, enabling the body to produce healthy blood cells.
Another area that caught my interest was synthetic biology. Pioneering companies like Ginkgo Bioworks and Zymergen are establishing biofactories using programmable organisms and producing solutions following the "organism as a service" model. These solutions run projects across a wide range of sectors, from agriculture to cosmetics, food, and industrial chemicals, adapting them to different industries. Artificial intelligence, robotic automation, and biology come together in the same sentence in this field.
I was now more passionately curious about how these technologies were born in türkiye, whose shoulders they were rising on, and whose lives they touched. Thus, I joined the HTT Summit 2025 volunteer team. This time, I didn't feel like just "someone coming to support the event," but returned as someone who had lived a year as a continuation of that atmosphere.
Every session of the HTT Summit was filled with hope, stories, courage, and belief. The people I met here and the conversations we had were the most valuable moments of the day.
Before the event, I had long dreamed of meeting Dr. Dilek Gürsoy, Europe's first female heart surgeon to perform an artificial heart transplant. This dream became a reality in the very first hours of the event, when I saw her in the foyer. She sincerely and energetically answered our curiosities about her career journey and the latest developments in the field of artificial heart. During our conversation, she showed us the new artificial heart models that are currently being used in surgeries and those that are under development. She excitedly explained the operating principles of the devices, the innovations in their design, and their potential impacts on patients.
After this sincere conversation, listening to her story on stage once again was much more meaningful for me. Her speech, which she ended with the words "If you work hard enough and never forget where you came from, one day you can be on the cover of Forbes too!" reminded me of the responsibility we carry on our career journey and refreshed my courage for dreaming big dreams.
I have always admired multidisciplinary work areas. It is no surprise I was this excited while listening to the works of Prof. Dr. Elvin Karana from Foamlab, which intersect biology and industrial design. At Foamlab, Prof. Dr. Elvin Karana and her team at Delft University of Technology, as a Professor of Material Innovation and Design, aim to replace petroleum-based plastics and foams with nature-friendly alternatives; they produce ultra-lightweight, highly porous, biodegradable nanoscale cellulose foams with adjustable density and mechanical properties, depending on the application, through bacterial fermentation. I think Elvin Karana's speech reminded us of the potential of multidisciplinary works and the value of working in harmony with nature for all listeners.
Prof. Dr. Itır Erhart, whom I have been following and inspired by for a long time, is a role model for me who shows the power of social entrepreneurship in creating transformation in all areas of life. At HTT Summit 2025, I had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with someone I admire for her life energy, combining academia, running social enterprises like Adım Adım and Açık Açık, marathon running, theater, and social impact projects.
Inspiration is a treasure that we cannot find just anywhere, and when we do, we should cherish it. When I asked for contact information from the people who inspired me to get in touch again in the future and perhaps work on impact-focused projects together, I felt not like I was expanding my network but like I was connecting with very valuable people whose worldviews are similar to mine.
Before leaving DasDas with lots of photos and beautiful memories after 2 fully packed days, I went to thank the Hello Tomorrow Türkiye team for the care and politeness they showed in making the event an enjoyable experience for everyone. When Ms. Hazal said, “Nazlıcan, we loved working with you,” I felt that this was not a farewell, but rather a new beginning.
I am currently part of the Hello Tomorrow Türkiye team as a Startup Community Specialist. The journey that started with volunteering at Hello Tomorrow türkiye 1.5 years ago has transformed into an experience where I am at the heart of the transformation today, working directly with deep tech entrepreneurs, contributing to the ecosystem, and within a process that I feel I belong to. I am delighted to not only be part of this ecosystem but also one of its shapers.
Sources
1- FDA Approves First Gene Therapies to Treat Patients with Sickle Cell Disease https://www-fda-gov.translate.goog/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapies-treat-patients-sickle-cell-disease?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=tr&_x_tr_hl=tr&_x_tr_pto=tc
2- Singh, Ajeet MBBSa; Irfan, Hamza MBBSb; Fatima, Eeshal MBBSc; Nazir, Zainab MBBSa; Verma, Amogh MBBSd; Akilimali, Aymar MDe,*. Revolutionary breakthrough: FDA approves CASGEVY, the first CRISPR/Cas9 gene therapy for sickle cell disease. Annals of Medicine & Surgery 86(8):p 4555-4559, August 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/MS9.0000000000002146
3- BCG & Hello Tomorrow. Deep Tech: The Great Wave of Innovation Report https://hello-tomorrow.org/deep-tech-the-great-wave-of-innovation
