Her research focuses on nanophotonics for biosensing and surface enhanced spectroscopy, integration with microfluidics and nanofabrication, to obtain high sensitivity, label-free characterization of biological material.

[3] Altug was the recipient of United States Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and The Optical Society of America Adolph Lomb Medal.

[8] Altug was recognized with OSA’s Adolph Lomb Medal in 2012[9] “for breakthrough contributions on integrated optical nano-biosensor and nanospectroscopy technologies based on nanoplasmonics, nanofluidics, and novel nanofabrication.”[citation needed] She was also named by President Obama among 94 researchers as a recipient of the 2011 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers.

She was awarded for leading the development of a biosensor that uses tiny crystals to manipulate light to detect a virus, a protein, or a cancer cell in a drop of blood.

In 2019, she was awarded the ERC Proof of Concept Grant by the European research council for her project: “Portable Infrared Biochemical Sensor Enabled by Pixelated Dielectric Metasurfaces.”[11]