Molecular Biology, Genetics & Bioengineering · Sabancı University
We study translational control and post-transcriptional gene regulation in cancer, with a focus on prostate cancer. Our goal is to uncover how oncogenic signals rewire the protein-synthesis machinery and to turn those dependencies into RNA-targeted therapies.
Principal Investigator
Faculty Member, Molecular Biology, Genetics & Bioengineering
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Sabancı University, İstanbul
Duygu is a molecular biologist whose work centres on how gene expression is controlled after transcription — how cells decide which mRNAs are translated into protein, and how cancer cells hijack that decision. She joined Sabancı University in early 2025 to establish her independent laboratory and continues her long-standing collaborations at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Her doctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, in the laboratory of Elisa Izaurralde, dissected how microRNAs and the CCR4–NOT deadenylase complex silence their target mRNAs. As a postdoctoral fellow and scientist in Davide Ruggero's laboratory at UCSF, she turned to translational control in cancer: she carried out a genome-wide screen for eIF4E genetic interactors that reveal cancer-specific vulnerabilities, defined N-myc–driven translation as a therapeutic weakness in medulloblastoma, and showed that the clinical eIF4A inhibitor zotatifin remodels 5′ UTR RNA structure to block oncogene translation in lethal prostate cancer — an approach she calls translatome therapy.
Postdoctoral support included an EMBO Long-Term Fellowship, an HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowship, a UCSF Prostate Cancer Program award, and funding from the U.S. Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program.
Research
RNA levels often poorly predict how much protein a cell makes. We work at that gap — on the mechanisms that select which mRNAs are translated, and on how tumours depend on them.
Castration-resistant prostate cancer depends on the continued production of oncogenic proteins such as the androgen receptor (AR) and HIF1α. We study how translation factors like the RNA helicase eIF4A select these mRNAs through their 5′ UTR structure, and how small molecules that reshape RNA structure can shut down their translation and sensitise tumours to anti-androgen and radiation therapy.
Signalling pathways that drive prostate cancer progression, including WNT signalling, are regulated well beyond transcription. We map how these pathways are controlled at the level of mRNA translation and stability, and investigate a previously unrecognised function of a key prostate cancer oncogene as a route to new therapeutic strategies.
The cap-binding protein eIF4E is required to translate all eukaryotic genomes, yet it is also a potent oncogene. Building on a genome-wide CRISPRi screen that uncovered more than 600 eIF4E genetic interactions, we explore how translation is wired to autophagy, mitochondrial stress responses and mRNA processing to sustain cancer cell fitness.
Our foundations lie in the biochemistry of mRNA turnover: how microRNA-induced silencing complexes recruit the CCR4–NOT and PAN2–PAN3 deadenylases, displace PABP and repress translation. These mechanisms continue to inform how we think about selective gene regulation in disease.
News
Duygu served on the scientific committee of the 10th International Congress of the Molecular Biology Association of Turkey, held 17–19 September 2026 at Acıbadem University, İstanbul.
Congress website →Selected as one of 37 early-career researchers across Türkiye for the Science Academy's BAGEP award, which provides two years of research support. The 2026 ceremony was hosted at Sabancı University.
One of 10 scientists selected for the 2026 EMBO Installation Grants, and the only project from Türkiye. The five-year award (€50,000 per year) supports a project investigating a previously unknown function of an oncogene central to prostate cancer and developing new therapeutic approaches.
Read the announcement →Awarded by the Turkish Academy of Sciences for a project on how the WNT signalling pathway is regulated at the post-transcriptional level in prostate cancer. The award was presented at a ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara.
TÜBA announcement →One of four scientists honoured in the 23rd L'Oréal Türkiye "For Women in Science" programme, for a project investigating the protein-synthesis control mechanisms of castration-resistant prostate cancer and translating them into therapy.
Read the announcement →Our study shows that the clinical eIF4A inhibitor zotatifin remodels the 5′ UTR structure of AR and HIF1α mRNAs, blocking their translation, reducing tumour burden and enhancing anti-androgen and radiotherapy responses. The work was highlighted in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery and Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology.
Read the paper →A 36-month project, "Understanding Novel Connections Between the Translation Machinery and Distinct Cellular Processes", funded to establish the lab's research programme at Sabancı University.
Read the announcement →Duygu joined the Molecular Biology, Genetics & Bioengineering programme at Sabancı University's Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences.
Funding
We are grateful to the organisations that support our research.
2026–2030 · €50,000 per year for five years to support the long-term development of the lab's independent research programme.
36-month project on the connections between the translation machinery and distinct cellular processes.
Early-career research support from the Turkish Academy of Sciences (2025) and the Science Academy (2026).
Author names in bold. Links open the article or its PubMed record.
Teaching & Service
Join the lab
We welcome motivated undergraduate researchers, MSc and PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows who are curious about RNA biology, translational control and cancer. We value rigorous, collaborative and inclusive science.
