Dr Basak Tas started at King’s College London in 2014 as a PhD student and continued to work in the Addictions Department as a Post-doctoral Research Associate on studies relating to opioid mortality and morbidity as well as contingency management for opioid use disorder treatment. She started in her current role as a Research Fellow in 2021 and has been working with Professor Sir John Strang and Dr Will Lawn on opioid overdose and wearable technologies that may be able to detect and respond to overdose.

Dr Tas completed her PhD under the supervision of Professor Sir John Strang, Dr Caroline Jolley and Dr James Bell. Her PhD was titled: Clinical and Laboratory Investigation into Heroin and Opioid Overdose Risk.

She gained an undergraduate degree and MSc in Neuroscience at King’s College London and University of Edinburgh, respectively. Prior to her PhD studies, she worked as a researcher for a Non-Governmental Organisation that provides specialist advocacy and advice to people who use drugs and the public.

Research Interests

• Opioid overdose and its underlying mechanisms
• Opioid use disorder and related treatment
• Health interventions tackling drug-related morbidity and mortality
• Experimental drug studies
• Wearable technologies for overdose detection

Teaching

Dr Tas contributes to the BSc Psychology “Addictions” & “Choices” modules and supervises MSc Addiction Studies projects. 

Expertise and Public Engagement

Dr Basak Tas has conducted a number of public engagement activities, including delivering workshops on addiction to school-aged students. Since 2017, she has been involved in an art-science collaborative project “Heroin Bodies” (https://www.heroinbodies.com/)