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Programming cellular devices to deliver proteins or small molecules using synthetic genetic regulation can be employed in many areas such as biomedicine, living therapeutics, living materials and many others. A biological device composed of a cellular sensor coupled with a programmed protein delivery system can lead the formation of a synthetic system that can sense the environmental inputs, carry out calculations and create an output. Using this approach, we have built cellular devices those can sense environmental signals and creates an output in the form of protein secretion. In this talk I will mention about a self-actuated cellular protein delivery system which utilizes logic gate based, and state-machine based operations for sequential protein delivery. Also, I will mention about our recent studies to create synthetic genetic circuits those rely on a sense-response approach. These will include a cellular device for a whole cell biocatalyst and another device for nanomaterial templating.
Dr. Urartu Şeker (Bilkent University UNAM- Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, Ankara, Turkey)
Dr. Seker has earned his PhD Degree in Molecular Biology and Genetics in November 2009 from Istanbul Technical University, and during his PhD he worked as a research assistant in University of Washington Seattle, Genetically Engineered Materials Center from 2004 to 2008. Following his PhD, in January 2010 he moved to Singapore Nanyang Technological University, and did his first postdoctoral study on Biophotonics and protein-nanomaterial hybrid systems until August 2011. In October 2011, he moved to MIT-Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Synthetic Biology Center and started to work as a Research Associate until March 2014. He worked on developing synthetic genetic circuits for engineered biofilm assembly, and genetic logic gates. Dr. Seker moved to Bilkent University Ankara Turkey in May 2014, and started Synthetic Biosystems Research Group. Dr. Seker is the recipient of Outstanding Young Investigator and Encouragement awards from Turkish Academy of Sciences, Turkish Health Institutes, Science Academy of Turkey, METU Parlar Foundation, Fevzi Akkaya Science Foundation and Nanyang Technological University Performance Award.