Bio-X SIGF Graduate Student Fellow

Awarded in 2014
Home Department: Biology
Faculty Advisors: Jan Skotheim (Biology), Daniel Fisher (Applied Physics), Marcus Feldman (Biology), and James Ferrell (Chemical & Systems Biology, Biochemistry)

Research Title: A novel framework for the analysis of principles of cellular signaling

Research Description: Cells, including those that make up our body, combine various signals from their environment to execute cellular decisions—such as the decision to divide. These decisions are complex outputs of many interacting genes and proteins within these cells. In this work, the Skotheim lab shows how to partition these interacting proteins into functional sub-groups, or modules, whose properties can be studied in isolation. They further develop an experimental framework to investigate whether these complicated cellular decisions can be vastly simplified and predicted by measurement of a few, appropriately chosen proteins. They combine mathematical modeling, genetics, and single-cell assays to test their framework and to understand how the dynamics of different proteins determines a cell’s decision to divide.

WHERE IS HE NOW?

Oguzhan is the co-founder and CEO of BillionToOne, a next-generation molecular diagnostics company. BillionToOne’s proprietary Quantitative Counting Templates (QCT) platform unlocks transformative improvements in prenatal screening and liquid biopsy for cancers.