Ankara, Türkiye
I am a 4th-year Molecular Biology and Genetics student at METU. I have a keen interest in RNA biology and evolution. I also have experience in cancer research. Currently, I am continuing a special project in Prof. Dr. Ahmet Acar's research lab about analysis based on WES and RNA-seq data. Previously, I was learning basic computational biology in Prof. Dr. Mehmet Somel's lab, under the supervision of Dr. Hamit Izgi. Before that I have done my summer internship as an Erasmus+ trainee at CIMA Universidad de Navarra, in Dr. Maite Huarte's lab. The focus of the lab is lncRNA and cancer. Previously, I have worked voluntarily at Prof. Dr. A.Elif Erson Bensan's breast cancer laboratory that researches role of RNA molecule in breast cancer.
I have started to learn the basic concepts of computational biology under the supervision of Dr Hamit Izgi, in Prof. Dr Mehmet Somel's lab.
I worked as part of Dr. Maite Huarte's Non-Coding RNA and Regulation of the Cancer Genome Group. During my internship, a PhD student, Elena Lopatukhina, supervised me and helped me in all steps of the learning process. I was able to clone a few mutant variants of a particular disease successfully. I also worked with cell culture (HCT116 cell line) and was able to do antibiotic treatment for mycoplasma contamination. I observed and helped with different steps of immunofluorescent experiments, testing the effect of stress on DNA and RNA secondary structure. At the same time, we tested AID degron cells for their ability to degrade a specific protein and I performed Western Blotting and transfection.
I was an undergraduate researcher at Prof. Dr. A. Elif Erson Bensan's RNA and breast cancer lab. I completed a project on the role of read-through transcripts in breast cancer. A candidate read-through transcript was selected, and its expression in breast cancer cells was analyzed using PCR. The long-term goal of the project was to find associations between the expression of a particular read-through transcript and breast cancer formation. The project was funded by Tubitak 2209A undergraduate research support program. I also completed another project regarding gene expression of CKB gene across three breast cancer subtypes. This project was funded by AdımODTÜ undergraduate research support program and was presented as poster presentation in AdımODTÜ undergraduate research day.