SABITALKS / Deciphering the Biology of Centriolar Satellites: How they Assemble, Function and Cause Disease
Dr. Elif Nur Firat Karalar from Koç University is going to be at SABITALKS on September 14 at 11:00. The event will take place in person. You can attend the event in person in the SABITA seminar hall.
Location: Istanbul Medipol University Kavacık North Campus: https://goo.gl/maps/JDDjygVtFLWiPiMJA
*Participants from outside SABITA must fill in the participation form.
Deciphering the Biology of Centriolar Satellites: How they Assemble, Function and Cause Disease
Centriolar satellites are membrane-less organelles that localize and move around microtubule-organizing centres; including the centrosome, which assembles the interphase microtubule array, mitotic spindle and cilia. Proteomic and mechanistic dissection of centriolar satellites identified them as transit sites where centrosome and cilium proteins are assembled into large complexes, modified, stored and/or trafficked. Importantly, centriolar satellite proteome is enriched for proteins mutated in developmental disorders such as ciliopathies and microcephaly. Functional and biochemical characterization of these proteins uncovered mechanisms that underlie diseases affecting eye and brain. Acute and chronic loss-of function experiments for centriolar satellites revealed their functions during cellular signaling and cell division. Finally, proteomic profiling of satellites using a new satellite knock-in mouse showed that satellites exhibit regulated heterogeneity across different cell types. By defining centriolar satellites as a new membrane-less trafficking pathway, our findings defined them as exciting membrane-less players that crosstalk with other cellular structures and provided new insight into organelle plasticity.
Dr. Elif Nur Firat Karalar
Associate Professor
Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics
Koç University
Dr. Elif Nur Firat-Karalar is an Associate Professor at Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics and School of Medicine at Koc University. She studied molecular biology and genetics at Bilkent University, Turkey. She then moved to US for her PhD work at the University of California, Berkeley, where she investigated the mechanisms of actin nucleation under the supervision of Matthew Welch. During her postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Tim Stearns at Stanford University, she used proteomics approaches and identified the centriole proteome and proximity interactome that revealed novel regulatory pathways for centriole biogenesis. Since 2014, she has been leading the cytoskeleton research laboratory at Koc University. Research in her lab focuses on studying the structure and function of the mammalian centrosome/cilium complex, with a particular focus on uncovering the molecular defects underlying developmental disorders. Elif is the first recipient of two ERC Starting Grants (2015, 2022) on her studies on the biology of centriolar satellites as well as other national and international grants including EMBO installation grant, Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship. Her research has been recognized by many awards including the EMBO Young Investigator Award, TUBITAK Incentive Award in Health Sciences and Sabri Ulker International Science Award