Ayşegül Yildiz was born in 1981 in the city of Karabük, Turkey. She earned her bachelor's in Biology from Marmara University in 2003 after which she started her masters in Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Biotechnology program at Istanbul Technical University under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Arzu Karabay. She successfully defended her thesis on “identification and characterization of chicken neuronal p80 katanin” in 2006 and started her Ph.D. at the same institution and same supervisor. During her Ph.D., Ayşegül worked extensively on the anti-apoptotic effects of SPEEDY/RINGO in neurodegeneration, her work was funded by the Turkish NSF (TÜBİTAK) and she was offered a merit scholarship during her work in the project.
She completed her Ph.D. in 2012 and by 2013 she started working as an Assist. Professor of Molecular Cell Biology at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University where she taught undergraduate students subjects such as Molecular Biology, Molecular Technologies, Neuroscience, and Neurodegeneration. In 2017, per the funding from the Dean of Faculty of Science at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, she established Yildiz Neuro Lab. Since the establishment of her lab, she continued to research the molecular mechanism governing SPEEDY/RINGO’s role in neurodegeneration, her project proposals received funding both from the Turkish NSF (TÜBİTAK) and the Research Support and Funding Office of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University. Since 2017, she mentored and supervised 8 Master's students and continues to work as an Assoc. Prof. of Molecular Cell Biology and head of Yildiz Neuro Lab at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University.