Sema Yılmaz was born on July 30, 1965. She received her undergraduate degree from Istanbul University Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty and completed her medical residency training at the Department of Pediatrics at Zeynep Kamil Women's and Children's Health and Diseases Hospital. She also completed her medical subspecialty training in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Cukurova University. Her medical residency thesis was titled "The Relationship Between Morning First Urine Density and Nocturnal Enuresis in Children Aged 3-6 Years", and her medical subspecialty thesis was titled "Comparison of Sphingosine 1-phosphate Receptor 4 Gene Expression in Healthy Children and Neuroblastoma Patients". She started her medical career as a general practitioner. After working as a general practitioner for 4 years, she worked as a doctor researcher at Zeynep Kamil Women's and Children's Health and Diseases Training and Research Hospital for 5 years. She then served as a specialist doctor, assistant professor, and associate professor at various institutions. She worked at Houston MD Anderson, North Carolina-UNC, Boston-Harvard University in the USA. Additionally, she conducted research on cell therapies. She received the title of professor in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Usak Medical Faculty. She is a member of the Turkish Pediatric Oncology Group, European Association for Cancer Research (EACR), Turkish Medical Association, Turkish National Pediatrics Association, Turkish Pediatrics Association, Pediatrics Specialty Academy Association (PUADER), Turkish Immunology Association, Turkish Hematology Association, and Molecular Oncology Association (MOKAD). She currently serves her patients at Koru Hospital. Her medical interests include:
Cell therapies in childhood cancers
Cancer immunology
Investigation of genetic pathways responsible for cancer and metastasis
Pulmonary microbiota
BAL transplantation