EDUCATION

Postdoc California Institute of Technology

Ph.D University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

M.Sc Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey 

B.Sc Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey 

AREA OF RESEARCH

Research Interest: Membrane proteins, Protein-protein interactions, GPCRs, nAChRs, Fluorescence proteins, Confocal microscopy, Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence microscopy, FRET, HPLC, Mass spectrometry, MALDI-TOF, protein purification, Photo affinity cross-linking

Description of research activities: Currently our research focused on the identification of protein-protein interactions by quantitative Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) measurements as well as by florescence intensity ratio (FIR) analysis in live cells. We are interested in G-protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) dimerization, and effects of post-translational modifications and ligand interactions on receptor dimerization.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Cevheroğlu O, Becker JM, Son ÇD. GPCR-Gα protein precoupling: Interaction between Ste2p, a yeast GPCR, and Gpa1p, its Gα protein, is formed before ligand binding via the Ste2p C-terminal domain and the Gpa1p N-terminal domain. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Biomembranes; Volume 1859, Issue 12, Dec 2017, Pages 2435-2446

Orkun Cevheroğlu, Gözde Kumaş, Melinda Hauser, Jeffrey M. Becker, Çağdaş D. Son. The yeast Ste2p G protein-coupled receptor dimerizes on the cell plasma membrane. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) – Biomembranes Volume 1859, Issue 5, May 2017, Pages 698–711

Cagdas D. Son, Fraser J. Moss, Bruce N. Cohen, Henry A. Lester. Nicotine Normalizes Intracellular Subunit Stoichiometry of Nicotinic Receptors Carrying Mutations linked to Autosomal Dominant Nocturnal Frontal Lobe Epilepsy. Molecular Pharmacology (2009) May;75(5):1137-48

Cagdas D. Son, Hasmik Sargsyan, Hurst GB, Fred Naider, Jeffrey M. Becker. Analysis of Ligand-Receptor Cross-linked Fragments by Mass Spectrometry. Journal of Peptide Research (2005) Mar; 65(3):418-26

Cagdas D. Son, Hasmik Sargsyan, Fred Naider, Jeffrey M. Becker. Identification of binding regions of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae alpha-factor pheromone receptor (Ste2p) by photo-affinity cross-linking. Biochemistry (2004) Oct 19; 43(41):13193-203