Esra completed her bachelor's degree at the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department at Istanbul Technical University in 2017. In 2019, she gained her MSc degree at the Biomedical Engineering Department at Boğaziçi University with a focus on biomaterials for bone tissue engineering. For her MSc thesis, Esra worked with calcium phosphate cement and composite materials to provide biocompatible treatments for bone defects.

In 2021, Esra joined the IBE Department at the MERLN Institute and started her PhD on biomaterials-driven bottom-up engineering of bone tissue. In this project, the aim is to generate three-dimensional bone-like spheroids that recapitulate the biological and structural aspects of native bone tissue through cell-guided assembly of designer microparticles as matrix-mimicking building blocks. The ultimate aim is create a novel biomaterials-based treatment for repairing defected bone tissue.