Department of Genetics and Bioengineering Faculty Member, PhD Özlem Ulucan Açan’s project received TÜBİTAK grant

The project of Faculty Member, PhD Özlem Ulucan Açan from Department of Genetics and Bioengineering at BİLGİ Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences titled ‘Characterization of Hybrid Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition States in Cancer Cells and Identification of Drug Candidate Molecules Targeting These Hybrid States’ has been entitled to receive a budget of 450,000 TL for 36 months within the scope of TÜBİTAK ARDEB 3501 Career Development Program. 

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), an embryonic program, is used by cancer cells and EMT enables the cancer cells to invade the surrounding tissue, spread to remote tissues, and develop resistance against various treatments. The project plans to examine EMT by adopting global approaches in light of current literature, define the sub-groups represented by common mechanisms, and find drug candidate molecules that can reverse EMT for each subgroup. Identifying drug candidate molecules for each subgroup by examining the heterogeneity in EMT will contribute to developing more suitable treatment strategies for cancer.

In the project, Faculty Member, PhD Hilal Taymaz Nikerel and Faculty Member, PhD Yuk Yin Ng from BİLGİ Department of Genetics and Bioengineering and Assoc. Prof. Özden Hatırnaz Ng from Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar University Faculty of Medicine Department of Basic Medical Sciences will serve as researchers.