Sabancı University Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Bioengineering PhD graduate Dr. Melike Berksöz has achieved great success by being awarded the SciLifeLab PULSE postdoctoral scholarship supported by the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND program.
Melike Berksöz’s project proposal, which combines her experimental and computational biology background with her experience in the biotechnology industry, was found deserving of support in the Entrepreneurial Track category after a multi-stage and internationally competitive evaluation process. This category aims to provide postdocs with entrepreneurship training, intellectual property rights, industry secondments, and company establishment skills by focusing on targeted drug discovery and development. Within this scope, Dr. Berksöz will focus on translational research by bringing project ideas to an applied perspective during the 6-month secondment process she will conduct with industry partners.
In his project at Lund University, Dr. Berksöz will develop an innovative protein degradation platform that combines AI-assisted binder design and experimental validation to selectively degrade membrane proteins located on the cell surface that are difficult to target with drugs. Membrane proteins are located on the cell surface and regulate vital processes such as signaling, immune response, and cell proliferation. So, the degradation of these abnormally functioning or overexpressed proteins has great potential in the treatment of many diseases, including cancer and autoimmune diseases.