Prof. Naim Sağlam
Prof. Naim Sağlam
Medical Leeches · Fırat University
nsaglam@firat.edu.tr · +90 539 619 3235
Born in Samsun in 1968. After graduating from Samsun Veterinary Vocational High School (1986) and Fırat University Faculty of Fisheries (1990), he worked as a Fisheries Engineer at the Elazığ Provincial Directorate of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock. He completed his master’s and doctoral work (1992–1997) in Fish Diseases at Fırat University. In 1994 he launched Türkiye’s first leech aquaculture studies at the Faculty of Fisheries. He became Assistant Professor in 1999, Associate Professor in 2004, and Professor in 2009.
At Rutgers–New Jersey State University (USA) he conducted molecular diagnosis of leeches with DNA techniques (2011), completed a postdoc on molecular evolution of Eurasian and North American leeches (2015–2016), and a second postdoc on embryonic stem cell development (2021–2023). He described 8 new leech species in the USA and 5 in Türkiye, including the Turkish medical leech Hirudo sulukii. He delivered leech farming training in Malaysia and Azerbaijan (2016), established aquaculture protocols for medical use, and helped set up four privately operated sterile medical leech farms in Türkiye and the world’s largest medical leech farm in Edirne. He has served as a TÜBİTAK scientific expert under CITES, as an independent observer scientist on the UN CITES invertebrate conservation committee (2023), and as a member of the TÜGET medical drug and device advisory board (2026). He has published over 130 national and international studies, 4 books, 12 book chapters, and 3 edited volumes, and has led more than 20 research projects.