TimeOut: Istanbul (in English)
The Sixth Degree
With Ezgi Karaca
July 2008
By Ayşe Şahin
**************************************************
If you get the way Facebook works, you could get the key to the causes of cancer. Don’t get it? Ayşe Şahin gets Ezgi Karaca to break it down for us.
**************************************************
AS: At 25, you’ve attracted the attention of top schools around the world with the cutting-edge research you’ve been doing for your Master’s Degree in chemical engineering, in a little-known yet vital area of science called computational biology…
EK: Experiments on a molecular basis aren’t always enough, or feasible, in the search for treatments for incurable diseases. When that’s the case, analyses done via computers can provide us with answers. Computational biology has been around for about 50 years, but it’s only recently become a hot area of medical research. It’s really starting to explode nowadays. Pharmaceutical firms and the US government have been pouring a ton of money into it.
AS: You yourself are currently doing your research thanks to a TÜBİTAK (The Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey) scholarship that supports the work of young scientists. Where are you conducting your research?
EK: At the Polymer Research Center at Bosphorus University, under the guidance of one of Turkey’s youngest and most successful professors, Prof. Dr. Türkan Haliloğlu.
AS: Can you give us a brief description of what it is specifically that you’ve been researching?
EK: There is a tumor-suppressing mechanism within the human body, made up of various proteins that communicate with each other through social networks...
AS: Hmm... Like Facebook?
EK: Yes, you could say that. My work has concentrated on a tumor-suppressing protein known as p73, which belongs to the p53 family of proteins. One of the primary aims of this study is to try to determine what kinds of circumstances might prevent it from working. It can be inconsistent in the way it functions, and increase or decrease depending on a number of positive and negative influences. In fact, it isn’t even consistently present in the body. It can be synthesized or distributed based on need, or even destroyed by several different proteins.
AS: So there’s a certain economy at work here, and even, a cellular rivalry to speak of...
EK: Yes, it’s a matter of balance. What’s also interesting is that the cell has various “check points” to maintain this balance. If that balance has been upset in some way, a protein’s function and the state of the cell can change dramatically.
AS: Given the many factors at play in this area of chemical engineering, combining it with the discipline of computer science to study them sounds logical and obvious enough. Less so may be the potential for contributions from still other disciplines...
EK: Absolutely. Microbiology is a field that could benefit from the perspectives of chemistry and physics too, for example, and even economics or philosophy... There could be significant advances to be made from experts in all of these fields getting together to discuss this subject.
AS: Molecular dynamics research figures in your work in computational biology, as well…
EK: It does... The thing is that, even though there are software programs used to study molecular dynamics, there is no computer that can precisely simulate the behavior of cell activity – computers just aren’t powerful enough. There really is still so much we have yet to learn in this field... Yet we tend to be egotistical and superficial, and believe we’re far more powerful and knowing than we actually are. I think we’re actually weak and pitiful, and that we try to cover up that weakness by trying to beat down other people and other species.
AS: You also happen to be an experienced deep-sea diver...
EK: I’m a licensed one-star instructor, which means that I’m certified to guide one other person in a deep-sea diving expedition. The highest level is the 3-star instructor, where you’re certified to open courses to train new divers. This has been a hobby that’s been helpful in terms of other areas of my life too, without a doubt. Though unfortunately I’ve had to put it aside for the time being, to concentrate on my studies and finish interviewing for doctoral programs.
AS: Where have you interviewed?
EK: I’ve had interviews with the University of Cambridge, the University of Leeds, King’s College of London, the University of Barcelona, and Utrecht University.
AS: Rumor has it that you’ve got some good news to share with us?
EK: I’m due to start a PhD under the Department of Chemistry at Utrecht University, one of the leading schools for Life Sciences. My supervisor will be Dr. Alexandre Bonvin, who’s working on computational structural biology, especially on protein-protein interactions.
AS: Where do you see yourself 5 years down the road?
EK: I’d like to find a post-Doc position in a highly qualified and prestigious environment. Afterwards, I’d like to come back to Turkey to teach what I’ve learned over the years.
AS: And in the meantime...
EK: I’d like to see the Turkish government develop an initiative that promotes the return of Turkish scientists who’ve lived and achieved success in their careers abroad. The Catalanian government in Spain recently did this by establishing research institutes of high standards for Spanish scientists to conduct their work. As a result, students have begun to go to Spain, so that they can study with these scientists instead of with scientists in other European countries or in the States. Why shouldn’t Turkey do the same?
The Sixth Degree
With Ezgi Karaca
July 2008
By Ayşe Şahin
**************************************************
If you get the way Facebook works, you could get the key to the causes of cancer. Don’t get it? Ayşe Şahin gets Ezgi Karaca to break it down for us.
**************************************************
AS: At 25, you’ve attracted the attention of top schools around the world with the cutting-edge research you’ve been doing for your Master’s Degree in chemical engineering, in a little-known yet vital area of science called computational biology…
EK: Experiments on a molecular basis aren’t always enough, or feasible, in the search for treatments for incurable diseases. When that’s the case, analyses done via computers can provide us with answers. Computational biology has been around for about 50 years, but it’s only recently become a hot area of medical research. It’s really starting to explode nowadays. Pharmaceutical firms and the US government have been pouring a ton of money into it.
AS: You yourself are currently doing your research thanks to a TÜBİTAK (The Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey) scholarship that supports the work of young scientists. Where are you conducting your research?
EK: At the Polymer Research Center at Bosphorus University, under the guidance of one of Turkey’s youngest and most successful professors, Prof. Dr. Türkan Haliloğlu.
AS: Can you give us a brief description of what it is specifically that you’ve been researching?
EK: There is a tumor-suppressing mechanism within the human body, made up of various proteins that communicate with each other through social networks...
AS: Hmm... Like Facebook?
EK: Yes, you could say that. My work has concentrated on a tumor-suppressing protein known as p73, which belongs to the p53 family of proteins. One of the primary aims of this study is to try to determine what kinds of circumstances might prevent it from working. It can be inconsistent in the way it functions, and increase or decrease depending on a number of positive and negative influences. In fact, it isn’t even consistently present in the body. It can be synthesized or distributed based on need, or even destroyed by several different proteins.
AS: So there’s a certain economy at work here, and even, a cellular rivalry to speak of...
EK: Yes, it’s a matter of balance. What’s also interesting is that the cell has various “check points” to maintain this balance. If that balance has been upset in some way, a protein’s function and the state of the cell can change dramatically.
AS: Given the many factors at play in this area of chemical engineering, combining it with the discipline of computer science to study them sounds logical and obvious enough. Less so may be the potential for contributions from still other disciplines...
EK: Absolutely. Microbiology is a field that could benefit from the perspectives of chemistry and physics too, for example, and even economics or philosophy... There could be significant advances to be made from experts in all of these fields getting together to discuss this subject.
AS: Molecular dynamics research figures in your work in computational biology, as well…
EK: It does... The thing is that, even though there are software programs used to study molecular dynamics, there is no computer that can precisely simulate the behavior of cell activity – computers just aren’t powerful enough. There really is still so much we have yet to learn in this field... Yet we tend to be egotistical and superficial, and believe we’re far more powerful and knowing than we actually are. I think we’re actually weak and pitiful, and that we try to cover up that weakness by trying to beat down other people and other species.
AS: You also happen to be an experienced deep-sea diver...
EK: I’m a licensed one-star instructor, which means that I’m certified to guide one other person in a deep-sea diving expedition. The highest level is the 3-star instructor, where you’re certified to open courses to train new divers. This has been a hobby that’s been helpful in terms of other areas of my life too, without a doubt. Though unfortunately I’ve had to put it aside for the time being, to concentrate on my studies and finish interviewing for doctoral programs.
AS: Where have you interviewed?
EK: I’ve had interviews with the University of Cambridge, the University of Leeds, King’s College of London, the University of Barcelona, and Utrecht University.
AS: Rumor has it that you’ve got some good news to share with us?
EK: I’m due to start a PhD under the Department of Chemistry at Utrecht University, one of the leading schools for Life Sciences. My supervisor will be Dr. Alexandre Bonvin, who’s working on computational structural biology, especially on protein-protein interactions.
AS: Where do you see yourself 5 years down the road?
EK: I’d like to find a post-Doc position in a highly qualified and prestigious environment. Afterwards, I’d like to come back to Turkey to teach what I’ve learned over the years.
AS: And in the meantime...
EK: I’d like to see the Turkish government develop an initiative that promotes the return of Turkish scientists who’ve lived and achieved success in their careers abroad. The Catalanian government in Spain recently did this by establishing research institutes of high standards for Spanish scientists to conduct their work. As a result, students have begun to go to Spain, so that they can study with these scientists instead of with scientists in other European countries or in the States. Why shouldn’t Turkey do the same?
*****
Ms. Karaca's research will be published in Nucleic Acids Research Magazine soon.
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