Berna earned her undergraduate degree in Biology at Akdeniz University, Turkey in 2009. She obtained a MSc in Reproductive Biology in 2013 and a PhD in Developmental Biology in 2018 at Akdeniz University School of Medicine. During her MSc she worked with Prof. Tom P. Fleming at the University of Southampton, UK (2012), and during her PhD she worked with Prof. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz at the University of Cambridge, UK (2015-2018). She then undertook her post-doctoral research first at Cambridge (2018-2019), and later at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) (2019-2020) with Prof. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz. In 2020, Berna joined the Yale faculty as Bohmfalk Scholar Assistant Professor to establish her independent research group at Yale Department of Genetics.
| Award | Awarding Organization | Date |
|---|---|---|
| ReproGrant for Female Reproductive Science | ReproGrant | 2023 |
| NIH Director's New Innovator Award | Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health/NIH/DHHS | 2022 |
| Smith Family Awards Program for Excellence in Biomedical Research | Smith Family Foundation | 2022 |
| Chen Innovation Award | Yale Stem Cell Center | 2022 |
| Bohmfalk Scholar in Medical Research | 2020 |