PERSONAL INFORMATION
Damla Erdogan
Date and Place of Birth: Sept. 4 ,1983 Istanbul TURKEY
Address: Am Gassl 1a 82205 Gilching Munich GERMANY
E-mail: damla [at] biochem [dot] mpg [dot] de
EDUCATIONAL STATUS
Sept 2008 – Present: Ph.D. Candidate, Max Plank Institute for Biochemistry, Proteomics and Signal Transduction Laboratory, Martinsried-Germany Advisor: Prof. Matthias Mann
Sept 2006 – June 2008 M.Sc., Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bogazici University, Istanbul- Turkey Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Nesrin Ozoren GPA: 4.0/4.0
Sept 2002 – June 2006 B.Sc., Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bogazici University, Istanbul-Turkey B.Sc., Chemistry , Bogazici University, Istanbul-Turkey GPA: 3.34/4.0
1995 – 2002 German High School, Istanbul-Turkey Graduated with ABITUR (2.0/6.0- 1.0 very good)
SCHOLARSHIPS
Jan. 15 2006 TUBITAK-BIDEB (Turkish Science and Technology Research Council- Scientific Human Resources Development) Scholarship
Master of Science in Molecular Biology and Genetics
Amount: 30,000 YTL
Continuance: 2 years
WORKSHOP and SEMINAR ATTENDANCE
Feb. 20-22 2008 EMBO Young Scientist Forum, Bogazici University, Istanbul Turkey Organized by EMBO
Assoc. Prof. Nesrin Ozoren, Bogazici University Poster presenter: “Importance of ASC expression levels in the development of chemo-resistance in human melanoma cell lines”
June 11-15 2007 Workshop on Flow Cytometry, Istanbul University, Istanbul Turkey
Dec. 7-8 2006 Teaching Workshop on Apoptosis, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir Turkey
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Jan. – Feb. 2008 Department of Hematology, Oncology,University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia-USA
Training in using flow cytometry for apoptosis detection. Contact: Wafik El-Deiry,M.D.
Sept. 2006 – June 2008 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Apoptosis and Cancer Immunology Laboratory, Bogazici University, Istanbul-Turkey
Thesis Title: “Importance of ASC expression levels in the development of chemoresistance in human melanoma cell lines”
My thesis is about the protein ASC and its contributions to the resistance of melanoma cell lines towards chemotherapy. ASC is an adapter protein, having a role in apoptosis as well as caspase 1 activation and inflammation. Previous data show that ASC expression is lost in the majority of metastatic melanoma cell lines and primary melanoma. Interestingly, these cells are also resistant to classical chemo-therapeutics such as doxorubicin. To establish, whether ASC is a determining factor for this chemo-resistance, l am using a lenti-viral infection system to re-introduce ASC into metastatic cells. Next, the viability of these cells is measured after subjecting them to different chemotherapy agents. As a continuation of the chemo-resistance studies, I will study the mechanism for ASC-mediated apoptosis activation and the involvement of the death receptor pathways in melanoma. Contact: Assoc. Prof. Nesrin Ozoren (EMBO-YIP member)
Oct. – Jan. 2005 Department of Chemistry, Bogazici University, Istanbul-Turkey
Accomplished the organic synthesis of a G4 dendrimere, which is a big globular molecule with compartments of different identity for dissolving in blood, targeting and action at bone and colon cancer. Contact: Assist. Prof. Rana Sanyal
June – Sept. 2005 Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia-USA
Using molecular biology and genetic techniques and tools such as cloning, complementation and expression tests, Western blotting and sequence analysis, we tried to determine the effect of cardiolipin in c ctype cytochrome biogenesis in Rhodobacter capsulatus. 2D protein gels and zymograms were run to analyze various samples. Contact: Prof. Fevzi Daldal
My work in this laboratory is acknowledged in :Aygun-Sunar S, Bilaloglu R, Goldfine H, Daldal F., Rhodobacter capsulatus OlsA is a Bifunctional Enyzme Active in Both Ornithine Lipid and Phosphatidic Acid Biosynthesis.J Bacteriol. 2007
Jan. – Feb. 2005 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Ankara -Turkey
Using cell culture techniques and fluorescence microscopy, we tried to diferentiate ß-catenin expression in quiescent hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines. Contact: Prof. Mehmet Ozturk Aug.
Sept. 2004 Symrise GmbH & Co., Holzminden – Germany
Practical work at the R & D Department of Fragrances
Part I Analytical Service : Introduction into the function of MS, NMR, GC, HPLC/MS, MS/GC devices and analysis of incoming samples.
Part II Formulation Chemistry: Development of a new household materials used for bathroom cleansing and hair style products
Part III Microbiology labratory: Analysis of incoming and outgoing raw materials for mold and coli bacteria was accomplished
July 2004 Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bogazici University, Istanbul -Turkey
Practical work in the Molecular Biology and Genetics labratory in order to identify the relative abundancy of trinucleotide repeat diseases, like SCA in Turkish population. Contact: Prof. A. Nazli Basak
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
BIO 351 Microbiology Laboratory (Fall 2006)
BIO 305 Practical Applications in Biochemistry and Genetics Laboratory (Spring 2007)
Substitute instructor in BIO 241 Essential Cell Biology (2007 Spring): 1 week covering cancer and apoptosis
Substitute instructor in BIO 241 Essential Cell Biology (2007 Fall): 1 week covering cell cycle
LABORATORY EXPERIENCE
Molecular & Cell Biology: Cell culture (maintenance of cell lines, lenti-viral transduction, primary cell culture drug-treatment, monocyte isolation), soft agar colony assay, ELISA, SDS-PAGE. Western Blotting, 2D-PAGE, apoptotic assays with flow cytometry.
Microbiology: Bacterial culture, bacterial growth curve, plasmid design, cloning, complementationBioinformatics : Primer design, BLAST, T-Coffee, NCBI-nucleotide, Workbench, Dizzy, Designing an interaction map of p53 and reverting it into SBML
Genetics: Nucleic acid amplification techniques, SSCP, sequence analysisMicroscopy : Inverted fluorescence microscopy, bright field
Spectroscopic techniques: IR, vis-UV spectroscopy, H1&C14-NMR, MSOrganic, Physical and Analytical Chemistry
PERSONAL ABILITIES
Languages: English – upper advanced (TOEFL-iBT:106), German – upper advanced, Spanish – beginner level (A2-Cervantes Estambul)
Computer skills: Competent in use of Microsoft Office such as Word, Excel and Power Point