Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elçin Ünal, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California Berkeley,
Associate Professor Elçin Ünal, from the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Berkeley University, built her scientific career studying the relationships between meiosis and aging. Dr. Ünal, who studied Molecular Biology and Genetics at Bilkent University, started to focus on meiosis whilst undertaking her doctorate at Johns Hopkins University in the USA. Unal, also focused on meiosis whilst at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She decided to investigate the effect of meiosis on aging while many researchers in the area were investigating the "effect of aging on meiosis". Aiming to define the principles of meiotic differentiation, Dr. Ünal joined the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Berkeley in 2014 and continued her innovative research in the laboratory she founded under her own name. Stating that she will continue to work on this subject in the future, Dr. Ünal says that she hopes to encourage other research and discoveries bsed on her inventions
Research Focus
"The effect of meiosis on aging"
Elçin Ünal is researching how to naturally treat the damage accumulated in cells as a result of aging. The main goal of Elçin Ünal and her team is to understand and reverse cellular aging. Dr. Ünal's main area of research is a biological process, also known as gametogenesis, in which reproductive cells, called gametes, form a chain of life for the next generation. Because this process prevents age-related damage from being passed on to the next generation in cells, examining it offers a unique insight into the biology of aging and potential treatments to combat age-related diseases.
Key references
- King, G. A., Wettstein, R., Varberg, J. M., Chetlapalli, K., Walsh, M. E., Gillet, L. C., ... & Ünal, E. (2023). Meiotic nuclear pore complex remodeling provides key insights into nuclear basket organization. Journal of Cell Biology, 222(2).
- Sing, T. L., Conlon, K., Lu, S. H., Madrazo, N., Morse, K., Barker, J. C., ... & Ünal, E. (2022). Meiotic cDNA libraries reveal gene truncations and mitochondrial proteins important for competitive fitness in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Genetics, 221(2), iyac066.
