In 1990s Nazli Basak’s research interest shifted from monogenic blood diseases towards complex brain disorders. Dr. Başak’s current research agenda focuses on multifactorial disease genetics; with her interest in mechanisms giving rise to neurodegenerative diseases and a special focus on ALS, she was appointed in 2005 as the director of NDAL, established by the prestigious Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation at Boğaziçi University. NDAL from its beginning has been involved in several national and international collaborations, including two multi-centered European projects, one of which aimed to unravel the cellular mechanisms underlying neuronal death, neuron regeneration and brain plasticity. The other project, geared by researchers from Europe and the Mediterrran, aimed to strenghten the research in the field of hemoglobinopathies and thalassemias with the use of available newly emerging e- infrastructure technologies.