MDBF Seminerleri – Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Atılgan Yılmaz
Mühendislik ve Doğa Bilimleri Fakültemizin düzenlediği seminer serisinin yeni konuğu, Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Atılgan Yılmaz (KU Leuven) olacak.
Dr. Yılmaz 3 Şubat Cuma saat 14:00’te Zoom’da “The Essentialome of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells and Their Differentiated Derivatives” başlıklı bir sunum yapacak. Etkinlik ilgilenen herkesin katılımına açıktır ve İngilizcedir.
Zoom Linki: https://bit.ly/3Hysxsq
Özet: In this talk, I will summarize my recent efforts to study the maintenance or switches of cell fates during early human embryogenesis by using high throughput functional genomics strategies. To this end, I will explain how I utilized the recently derived haploid human embryonic stem cells as a robust experimental tool to perform genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9-based loss-of-function screens. In the first part of my talk, I will focus on how we identified the essential genes (the essentialome) for the normal growth and survival of human embryonic stem cells through such screens. I will discuss interesting cell biological features and the disease association of these genes, while also describing a core essentialome network for human pluripotency. In the second part of my talk, I will show how we used this screening platform to define the essential gene circuits for the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells into the three germ layers, namely the ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. I will also share quick highlights on our more recent work, in which we performed similar screens for the later stages of development, focusing on neural differentiation. In addition to these developmental studies, I will briefly discuss the results of a fruitful collaboration, in which we used our screening platform to study host interactions of Zika virus. In summary, I hope to demonstrate that we were able to leverage a robust genome-wide screening tool to address various biological questions and how this methodology opens up new avenues for my future research aims of studying the development and diseases of skeletal muscle in human.
Konuşmacı Hakkında: Atilgan Yilmaz obtained his BSc degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bogazici University in Istanbul. He then earned his PhD in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry from Brown University under the supervision of Prof. Justin Fallon, working on genetic disorders of skeletal muscle and signaling pathways regulating the cells of this tissue. Following his PhD, he joined the former laboratory of Emeritus Prof. Renato Paro at ETH Zurich as a postdoctoral researcher to study cell fate decisions in skeletal muscle cells. He then went on working in the laboratory of Prof. Nissim Benvenisty at the Hebrew University as a Lady Davis postdoctoral fellow, where he developed a genome-wide screening platform in human embryonic stem cells to study the maintenance or switches of cell fates during early human embryogenesis. As a stem cell biologist, Atilgan is interested in understanding cell state transitions by using high throughput functional genomics strategies. His research at KU Leuven will focus on the identification of gene networks and mechanisms regulating the generation of skeletal muscle cells in human during development and disease.