Gebze Technical University

OBEDİA LAB (Obezite ve Diyabet Araştırma Laboratuarı)

Laboratory Name	OBEDİA LAB (Obezite ve Diyabet Araştırma Laboratuarı)
Laboratory Responsible	Assoc. Prof. Ferruh Özcan
Department	Molecular Biology and Genetics
Telephone	+90 (262) 6052548/2508
Address	Gebze Institute of Technology Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics C-2/221 41400 Cayirova, Kocaeli, TURKEY
General Information	The epidemic surge of obesity in today’s modern societies constitutes a major threat for the longevity and the quality of human life. The main research activities in our laboratory are centered on the idea of improving the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of obesity and diabetes. In this perspective our research themes include the mechanism of adipocyte differentiation, transcriptional regulation of lipogenesis and gluconeogenesis and the regulation of insulin signaling pathway itself under different physiological conditions. Unraveling the molecular details of these biological processes will enable us to identify new pharmacological targets in effort to mitigate the adverse effects of obesity and related metabolic diseases including type 2 diabetes.
Laboratory Staff	Onur Z. Çalışkaner (MS) Meryem Topçu (MS) Seyma F. Özen (MS) Özge Eltan (MS) Tuğçe Keskiner (MS)
Applications	1. Constructing knockout animal models to investigate in vivo functions of the susceptible genes. 2. Exploit efficient gene knockdown methodologies such as shRNAs and siRNAs for probing the function of the genes in in vitro cell culture models. 3. Over expression studies of the wild type, dominant negative and other functional mutant proteins in the cells. 4. Apply 2-D gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry to elucidate proteomik alterations between different samples. 5. Define the subcellular localization of proteins by confocal fluorescent microscopy. 6. Probe the effects of various extracellular and intracellular cues on adipogenic processes by multiple qPCRs, proteomic approaches, and biochemical studies using 3T3-L1 in vitro differentiation system.
Equipment	Light Cycler 480 (Roche, Germany) Varioskan Falsh (Thermoscientific, USA) Protean IEF System (BIORAD, USA)