Araştırma • Araştırma Konuları

Mammals, including humans, are equipped with various defense mechanisms both at the organismal and cellular levels. Cells defend themselves against stressful conditions by activating various intracellular molecular responses. Basaga and Gozuacik Labs focus on various aspects of these cellular stress responses. Organismal responses include the immune defense mechanisms. Erman Lab is specialized in their regulation.

Basaga Lab is interested in the regulation of stress related eukaryotic gene expression, with focus on the regulation of NFkB and AP-1 activation and target gene expression by inflammatory cytokines. Basaga Lab is also working on adaptive responses to oxidative stress in eukaryotic systems and cell death signaling in plant and mammalian cells.

Erman Lab is investigating signal transduction in the mammalian immune system. Here, mainly, signal transduction mechanisms in the immune system and tissue specific transcription of cytokine receptor genes are studied. Besides, interaction trap assays are carried on to identify novel components and inhibitors of signal transduction pathways.

Gozuacik lab’s research theme is cellular stress and death responses. In particular, the lab focuses on autophagy regulation in mammals, autophagic cell death mechanisms, autophagy-apoptosis connection, role of autophagy in immune defense and autophagy abnormalities in human diseases.

Faculty Members: Hüveyda Basağa, Hikmet Budak, Batu Erman, Devrim Gözüaçık

Recent Projects:

• Cytokine induced gene expression and its role on signal transduction pathways and gene expression. (TUBITAK*)
• Isolation and characterization of starch biosynthetic cDNA genes from lentil (Lens culinaris Medic.). In collaboration with KOC University (TUBITAK)
• Role of CD3 delta in T Cell Receptor signals. (TUBITAK)
• Screening for plant factors that modify the function of the mammalian immune system. (6th Framework Program)
• Discovery of new autophagy regulatory proteins. (TUBITAK)
• Autophagy in Health and Disease. (EMBO)
• * TUBITAK: The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey
• ** EMBO: European Molecular Biology Organization

Publications:

Small inhibitor of Bcl-2, HA14-1, selectively enhanced the apoptotic effect of cisplatin by modulating Bcl-2 family members in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Arisan ED, Kutuk O, Tezil T, Bodur C, Telci D, Basaga H. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2009 Feb 24.

Fibronectin-tissue transglutaminase matrix rescues RGD-impaired cell adhesion through syndecan-4 and beta1 integrin co-signaling. Telci D, Wang Z, Li X, Verderio EA, Humphries MJ, Baccarini M, Basaga H, Griffin M. J Biol Chem. 2008 Jul 25;283(30):20937-47.

Interleukin 7 signaling in dendritic cells regulates the homeostatic proliferation and niche size of CD4+ T cells. Guimond M, Veenstra RG, Grindler DJ, Zhang H, Cui Y, Murphy RD, Kim SY, Na R, Hennighausen L, Kurtulus S, Erman B, Matzinger P, Merchant MS, Mackall CL. Nat Immunol. 2009 Feb;10(2):149-57.

Targeting CD4 coreceptor expression to postselection thymocytes reveals that CD4/CD8 lineage choice is neither error-prone nor stochastic. Adoro S, Erman B, Sarafova SD, Van Laethem F, Park JH, Feigenbaum L, Singer A. J Immunol. 2008 Nov 15;181(10):6975-83.

DAP-kinase is a mediator of endoplasmic reticulum stress-induced caspase activation and autophagic cell death. Gozuacik D, Bialik S, Raveh T, Mitou G, Shohat G, Sabanay H, Mizushima N, Yoshimori T, Kimchi A. Cell Death Differ. 2008 Dec;15(12):1875-86.

Otofajik Hücre Ölümü. Öz-Arslan D, Korkmaz G, Gözüaçık D. Moleküler Tanı, in press.