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ASSISTANT PROFESSOR FULYA TÜRKER Faculty Member |
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| Office: SB-246 Phone: +90 312 290 2419 E-mail: fulya.turker@bilkent.edu.tr |
• Google Scholar profile • LinkedIn profile • PubMed entries • ORCID profile |
Biography
Dr. Türker graduated as the valedictorian with a B.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Bioengineering and a minor in Chemistry, from Sabancı University in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2017. During her undergraduate years, she broadened her academic experience by spending a semester as an exchange student at Boston University and completing an internship at Harvard Medical School.
Following her undergraduate studies, Dr. Türker pursued her Ph.D. in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, under the guidance of Dr. Seth S. Margolis. Her doctoral research focused on identifying neuronal membrane proteasome-derived peptides with signaling roles in the mammalian nervous system. Additionally, she explored dynamics of proteasome’s enzymatic functions in neurodegenerative diseases through the use of activity-based probes.
After earning her Ph.D., Dr. Türker joined Dr. Sandra Encalada's research group at The Scripps Research Institute, California as a postdoctoral research fellow. During her postdoctoral training, she was awarded the George E. Hewitt Foundation Fellowship for Medical Research. Her work at Scripps centered on investigating the functional impairments of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway and proteasome machinery in prion disease.
In September 2024, Dr. Türker joined the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bilkent University as an Assistant Professor. Her group explores specialized protein degradation machineries in the mammalian nervous system that regulate neuronal signal transduction.
Research
Our aim is to uncover the novel signaling role of the proteasome, the main non-lysosomal protein degradation machinery, in the mammalian nervous system—both in normal conditions and during neurodegenerative disease state. The proteasome produces short peptide molecules as a result of protein breakdown. While it's widely recognized for maintaining protein homeostasis, recent studies suggest that the proteasome performs critical and unique functions in neurons, particularly in modulation of neuronal signaling.
Proteasomes localize to the plasma membrane specifically in neurons, forming what we call the neuronal membrane proteasome (NMP). This unconventional localization of the proteasome to the plasma membrane is drastically reduced in an Alzheimer’s disease (AD) model, which suggests a potential role for the NMP in initiation and progression of neurodegenerative diseases.
More intriguingly, upon neuronal stimulation, the NMP degrades newly synthesized intracellular proteins into extracellular peptides, pointing to a co-translational degradation mechanism. These NMP-derived peptides, when applied to naive neurons, can trigger neuronal activation, as indicated by calcium influx and increased expression of activity-regulated genes. Thus, we hypothesize that NMP peptides drive a novel form of neuronal communication, responsible for modulating neuronal signaling.
Our lab explores this unique system through a multidisciplinary approach, combining biochemistry, cell biology, proteomics, and microfluidics to investigate NMP biology and its physiological relevance in health and disease.
Key Publications
Villalón Landeros, E., Kho, S. C., Church, T. R., Brennan, A., Türker, F., Delannoy, M., Caterina, M. J., & Margolis, S. S. (2024). The nociceptive activity of peripheral sensory neurons is modulated by the neuronal membrane proteasome. Cell Reports, 43(4), 114058.
Türker, F., Brennan, A., & Margolis, S. S. (2024). Neuronal membrane proteasome-derived peptides modulate NMDAR-dependent neuronal signaling to promote changes in gene expression. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 35(1), ar6.
Türker, F., & Margolis, S. S. (2023). Proteasome cap particle regulates synapses. Science (New York, N.Y.), 380(6647), 795–796.
Türker, F., Bharadwaj, R. A., Kleinman, J. E., Weinberger, D. R., Hyde, T. M., White, C. J., Williams, D. W., & Margolis, S. S. (2023). Orthogonal approaches required to measure proteasome composition and activity in mammalian brain tissue. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 299(6), 104811.
Türker, F., Cook, E. K., & Margolis, S. S. (2021). The proteasome and its role in the nervous system. Cell Chemical Biology, 28(7), 903–917.