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ASSISTANT PROFESSOR BAHAR DEĞİRMENCİ UZUN Faculty Member |
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| Office: SB-241 Phone: +90 312 290 2154 Lab website: bdlab.bilkent.edu.tr E-mail: bahar.degirmenci@bilkent.edu.tr |
• LinkedIn profile • PubMed entries • Twitter address |
Biography
Dr. Degirmenci Uzun is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey, a position she has held since November 2018. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Konrad Basler, focusing on the role of Wnt-secreting stem cell niches in intestinal renewal and regeneration. She completed her M.Sc. at Koç University, where she worked on specific drug design targeting Aurora B kinase. She received her B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Middle East Technical University (METU), graduating as the top-ranked student in her class. Her academic excellence has been recognized through numerous prestigious awards and scholarships, including the EMBO Installation Grant, the Zurich University Research Priority Program (URPP) Fellowship in Translational Cancer Research, and participation in international programs such as the LMU LSM Summer School (Munich), the 4th CIMST Interdisciplinary Summer School (Zurich), and an ERASMUS-funded summer internship in Munich. Her research focuses on stem cell biology, particularly the mechanisms regulating stem cell behavior in tissue homeostasis and regeneration.
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Research
Dr. Degirmenci Uzun’s research focuses on stem cell biology, with an emphasis on the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying tissue regeneration and homeostasis. During her Ph.D. at the University of Zurich, she identified Wnt-secreting niches crucial for supporting intestinal epithelial stem cells and discovered Gli1⁺ mesenchymal cells as key contributors to regeneration, particularly following colitis. Her work demonstrated that specific Wnt ligands are essential for intestinal integrity and that Wnt signaling plays a critical role in colorectal cancer, even in tumors lacking canonical pathway mutations.
At Bilkent University, she has established an independent research program that combines mouse genetics with advanced 3D culture systems such as organoids and tissue-engineered assembloids. Her recent studies uncovered the neuro-glial mechanisms of the enteric nervous system during colonic repair and identified the mechanotransduction axis in liver progenitor cells as a key driver of fibrosis and tissue remodeling. Supported by the EMBO Installation Grant and TÜBİTAK 1001, her lab aims to define fundamental principles of stem cell–niche communication and to develop translational strategies (assembloids) for regenerative medicine and chronic inflammatory disease treatment.
Key Publications
Degirmenci, B., Dincer, C., Demirel, H. C., Berkova, L., Moor, A. E., Kahraman, A., Hausmann, G., Aguet, M., Tuncbag, N., Valenta, T., & Basler, K. (2021). Epithelial Wnt secretion drives the progression of inflammation-induced colon carcinoma in murine model. iScience, 24(12), 103369.
Degirmenci, B., Valenta, T., Dimitrieva, S., Hausmann, G., & Basler, K. (2018). GLI1-expressing mesenchymal cells form the essential Wnt-secreting niche for colon stem cells. Nature, 558(7710), 449–453.
Degirmenci, B., Hausmann, G., Valenta, T., & Basler, K. (2018). Wnt Ligands as a Part of the Stem Cell Niche in the Intestine and the Liver. Progress in molecular biology and translational science, 153, 1–19.
Unsal, E., Degirmenci, B., Harmanda, B., Erman, B., & Ozlu, N. (2016). A small molecule identified through an in silico screen inhibits Aurora B-INCENP interaction. Chemical biology & drug design, 88(6), 783–794.
Sari, I., Uzun B., Oguz, M.O., Gursoy, E., Satlykov, N., Gemalmayan, D., Gonullu, N., Valenta, T., Aerts Kaya, F., Gizer, M., Korkusuz, P., Degirmenci, B. Self-Organizing Assembloids Reveal Enteric Nervous System Dynamics in Gut Homeostasis and Regeneration.