EDUCATION

Postdoc Department of Neurosurgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA, 2011-2017

Ph.D Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA 2005-2011

M.Sc Biotechnology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, TR, 2000-2002

B.Sc Biology, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, TR, 1995-2000

AREA OF RESEARCH

The main research interest in our laboratory is to understand epigenetic regulation in brain cancer and its role in chemoresistance. Epigenetic changes that occur during tumor progression are increasingly recognized as potential therapeutic targets in various human cancer types. Histone modifications (e.g., methylation and acetylation) regulate chromatin structure and transcription, and abnormalities in this process lead to perturbed development and differentiation. The demonstration of frequent somatic mutations in histones and chromatin-modifying factors in a wide range of human tumor types accentuates the importance of epigenetic regulation in tumorigenesis. Our hypothesis is that meningioma pathology and chemoresistance are governed by distant regulatory regions and core transcriptional elements that bind to these regions. Our laboratory ultimately focuses on mapping the genomic and epigenomic landscape of meningioma and designing efficient targeted therapies to overcome chemoresistance.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Integrated genomic analyses of de novo pathways underlying atypical meningiomas. Harmancı AS, Youngblood MW, Clark VE, Coşkun S. et al. Nat Commun. 2018 Apr 20;9:16215. doi: 10.1038/ncomms16215.

Integrated genomic characterization of IDH1-mutant glioma malignant progression. Bai H, Harmancı AS, Erson-Omay EZ, Li J, Coşkun S. et al. Nat Genet. 2016 Jan;48(1):59-66. doi: 10.1038/ng.3457.

Bioactive poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels to recapitulate the HSC niche and facilitate HSC expansion in culture. Cuchiara ML, Coşkun S, Banda OA, Horter KL, Hirschi KK, West JL. Biotechnol Bioeng. 2016 Apr;113(4):870-81. doi: 10.1002/bit.25848.

Development of the fetal bone marrow niche and regulation of HSC quiescence and homing ability by emerging osteolineage cells. Coșkun S., Chao H., Vasavada H., Heydari K., Gonzales N., Zhou X., de Crombrugghe B., Hirschi KK. Cell Reports. 2014, 9(2):581-90. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2014.09.013.

Mdm2 is required for survival of hematopoietic stem cells/progenitors via dampening of ROS-induced p53 activity. Abbas HA, Maccio DR, Coşkun S, Jackson JG, Hazen AL, Sills TM, You MJ, Hirschi KK, Lozano G. Cell Stem Cell. 2010 Nov 5;7(5):606-17. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2010.09.013.