Samsun to Texas: The Scientist Behind the Honey Research

Every research program has a person at the start of it. Behind the honey bioactivity screening, the $2.8M USDA program, and the TEDx stage is Dr. Ferhat Öztürk — “The Honey Professor” — whose path to honey ran through gene therapy, a Honey Research Center directorship in Samsun, Turkey, and seven semesters at the University of Texas at San Antonio. This is that journey, told from his institutions' own records: syllabi, program pages, and university announcements.

From gene therapy to honey

Öztürk earned his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno — public sources confirm the degree and the field, though not the graduation year — training under in-utero gene therapy researchers Christopher Porada and Esmail Zanjani. Postdoctoral work followed at Creighton University (cardiovascular gene therapy with Devendra Agrawal) and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (cell signaling and bioinformatics with Ali Nawshad; his syllabi also record wound-healing research). It is an unusual on-ramp to apiculture — and exactly the toolkit his later work needed: molecular biology, signaling, and the bioinformatics to make sense of hundreds of samples.

Samsun: the Honey Research Center

Before Texas, there was Samsun. His Sul Ross State University syllabi list his pre-Texas role as department chair and director of the Honey Research Center in Samsun, Turkey — the period when honey changed from a subject of curiosity into a research program. The center years explain the throughline of everything after: not a biologist who discovered honey, but a honey researcher trained first as a molecular biologist.

Texas, part one: UTSA and the HONEY Pathway

From spring 2022 through summer 2025 — seven semesters — Öztürk taught and researched at the University of Texas at San Antonio, rising from Assistant Professor of Practice in Integrative Biology to Associate Professor of Practice/Instruction in Biology, Health and Environment. There he founded and directed the HONEY Pathway — “Honeybee Oriented Nextgen Entrepreneurs and Youth” — the program that became his signature: in June 2023 the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded $2.8 million over five years to train urban beekeepers, open USDA career paths for underrepresented students, and run medicinal-honey research with student scientists. The program has mentored more than 70 student scientists and analyzed over 500 honey samples for bioactivity.

Texas, part two: Eagle Pass

In fall 2025 he joined Sul Ross State University International in Eagle Pass, Texas, as Associate Professor of Biology and Founding Program Director of Biology — building a biology program, not just joining one. The move put the honey research program on a new institutional footing while the science continued: peer-reviewed papers in 2024 and 2025, a TEDx stage in 2025, and thehoneyprofessor.com — his professional site collecting lessons, medicinal-honey resources, consulting, and speaker bookings.

The publications trace the arc. Lead author on “Honey Compounds Exhibit Antibacterial Effects Against Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans JP2” (Antibiotics, 2025; DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics14090887). Co-author of the consensus “Medical-grade honey: its definition and refined standards” (Journal of Wound Care, 2025; DOI: 10.12968/jowc.2024.0206). Lead author of a 2024 systematic-review book chapter on honey for burn-wound treatment, covering 38 studies. And in 2025, “Honey A Sweet Medicine” on the TEDx stage — the gene-therapy Ph.D. explaining honey to the world.

ghmap.io covers the field's agenda: companies, products, regulation, and market access. Careers like this one are the pipeline's human layer — the reason evidence exists for markets to use. From molecule (gene therapy) to measurement (bioactivity screening) to standard (medical-grade definitions): each career stage built the next stage's credibility.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Where did Dr. Öztürk earn his Ph.D.?

A: In Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Public sources confirm the institution and field; the graduation year is not publicly documented.

Q: What did he do before coming to Texas?

A: He served as department chair and director of the Honey Research Center in Samsun, Turkey, as listed in his Sul Ross State University syllabi.

Q: What is the HONEY Pathway?

A: “Honeybee Oriented Nextgen Entrepreneurs and Youth” — the USDA NIFA NEXTGEN-funded program he founded and directed at UTSA: $2.8 million over five years (awarded June 2023) for urban-beekeeper training, student research, and medicinal-honey science. It has mentored 70+ student scientists.

Q: Where is he now?

A: Since fall 2025, Associate Professor of Biology and Founding Program Director of Biology at Sul Ross State University International in Eagle Pass, Texas.

Q: What are his key honey publications?

A: The 2025 Antibiotics paper on honey compounds vs. a periodontitis pathogen (lead author), the 2025 Journal of Wound Care consensus on medical-grade honey standards (co-author), and a 2024 systematic-review book chapter on honey for burn wounds (lead author).

If you are bringing a wound-care or natural-product innovation toward a first market — first evidence package, first distributor, first hospital pilot — a ghmap.io market-entry brief maps your stages. See the link below.