Rate My Professor Yusuf Cakmak

Associate Professor Yusuf Ozgur Cakmak serves in the Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences Division, at the University of Otago, where he holds the position of Point-of-Care Technologies Theme Leader for the Centre for Bioengineering and Nanomedicine. He earned his MD and PhD from institutions in Turkey. His career encompasses founding two US-based spinoff companies specializing in wearable neuromodulation and mobile phone-based diagnostics, such as Stoparkinson Healthcare Systems and Ventimate Health. Cakmak holds over ten international patents, including those for electrostimulation devices for Parkinson's disease, systems for monitoring auditory startle response, and non-invasive stimulation devices for sternocleidomastoid muscles and cervical nerves. He is a member of the Interventional Technologies theme at the New Zealand Consortium for Medical Device Technologies and provides invited expert opinions to governmental grants from NIH (US), ERC (EU), and MRFF (Australia).

Cakmak's research focuses on non-invasive neuromodulation, electrostimulation, functional neuroanatomy, neuroprosthetics, wearable electronic devices, and digital health applications, including modulation of cranial nerves for Parkinson's disease, olfactory function, gastric activity, and cybersickness prediction via machine learning. Key publications include "Noncontact midair ultrasonic neuromodulation of the median and ulnar nerves induces frequency-specific parasympathetic and cortical network responses in healthy adults" (2025, Neuromodulation), "Improved olfactory function following high-frequency transcutaneous auricular vagal nerve stimulation in post-COVID-19 patients with olfactory dysfunction" (2025, European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology), "Systematic review of olfactory shifts related to obesity" (2019, 153 citations), "Arcuate foramen and its clinical significance" (2005, 145 citations), and "Intrinsic auricular muscle zone stimulation for Parkinson disease" (2023). He has conducted clinical trials registered in the US and ANZCTR for auricular electrostimulation in Parkinson's and olfactory modulation. Awards include the 2024 Charles Fleming Senior Scientist Award from the Royal Society Te Apārangi for unravelling human auricula innervation pathways for wearable neuroprosthetics. His research receives support from Health Research Council New Zealand and MedTech Core NZ grants. Cakmak teaches in programs such as Postgraduate Diploma in Surgical Anatomy, FRACS, and ANAT335 Neuromodulation: Neural Networks and Senses, and has organized symposia on applied anatomy for medtech.