Kumru E. Kastro is the Liaison Librarian for Biology, Chemistry, BEES, and first-year Engineering at Drexel University. Kumru is responsible for building library collections and teaching information and research skills to faculty and students. Kumru offers individual and small group consultations to students, as well as instructional sessions to specific classes.
Kumru has been involved in the field of life sciences for more than 20 years, earning her BS in Biology and an MSc in Molecular Biology. She started her career as a research scientist for biotechnology at TUBITAK (the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). She then spent 13 years working in the pharmaceutical industry in Europe, during which time she held leading roles within the Regulatory Affairs departments at GlaxoSmithKlein, Merck & Co., and Janssen, the pharmaceutical division of Johnson & Johnson. After moving to the United States in 2003, Kumru became an Adjunct Faculty member for Biology at Camden County College, where she participated in various bioinformatics research projects with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Her interests in information management systems for life sciences grew from there, and she went on to earn her Master of Information (MI) degree from Rutgers University in December 2016. Prior to coming to Drexel, Kumru worked as a bioinformatics intern at the University of Pennsylvania’s Biomedical Library.
Her interests include project management, bioinformatics and data and health sciences literacy.