A Day in the Life of a CRI Scientist: Dr. Merve Deniz Abdusselamoglu

Immunotherapy provides hope for millions of patients with dozens of cancer types, sometimes breaking through where previous treatments failed. Scientists, researchers, and clinicians are integral members of the scientific ecosystem that bears the fruit of immunotherapy progress. Cancer researchers publish scientific articles about recent developments, run clinical trials to develop life-saving treatments, and steer the wheel of innovation in numerous other ways. But what does daily work look like? When they enter their lab and roll up their sleeves, how does their planning inform the implementation of their research?

To answer those questions, CRI is proud to introduce a new blog series, “A Day in the Life of a CRI Scientist.” This premier entry features CRI-funded scientist Merve Deniz Abdusselamoglu, PhD, a CRI-Carson Family Fellow in the Fuchs Lab at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Abdusselamoglu’s research focuses on skin cancer, and she works with mouse models on a nearly daily basis. She was gracious enough to take time out of her busy schedule to pull back the scientific curtain and tell CRI what a day of research is like.

Science is collaborative, you are not doing everything on your own. I’m more of an expert when it comes to chromatin biology. If my question leads me to a place where I need more expertise in neuroscience, then I ask (for help).”

–Merve Deniz Abdusselamoglu, PhD
CRI-Carson Family Fellow

1. Can you introduce yourself and tell me just a little bit about your most recent research? 

I am a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Elaine Fuchs’ Laboratory at Rockefeller University. I’m working on skin cancer, squamous cell carcinoma specifically. I’m trying to understand how pioneer factors* create heterogeneity (variety) within skin cancers and how we can target this and look at their interaction with the immune cell population. 

*Pioneer factors are a type of transcription factor that binds with and activates previously inactive chromatin regions—a structure made of DNA and proteins found within a cell’s nucleus. 

2. Is there such a thing for you as a ’typical day’ in the lab? If not, what are some of your more common lab tasks? 

On a daily basis, we are doing more basic research experiments like immunofluorescence staining of the tissue, looking at the tissue, sorting out specific cell types, and then looking into the cell types and understanding their chromatin landscape. That chromatin landscape tells us the identity of the cells, and if you know their identities and how they are flowing from one state to the other, we can easily target them. 

Every day, we conduct very similar experiments. The hypotheses are different, but the tools we use are very common. We collect the tissues, generate a single cell solution, sort out the cells that we are interested in, and then look at them in different assays. Depending on our questions, these assays (can) differ. 

We can create genetic models where we create the genetic mutation from birth, and then they spontaneously grow the tumors. Or we can use chemicals and create tumors—chemical carcinogenesis. Another version of generating tumors is by injecting the cells back into the mice. 

3. What challenges do you face in your lab? 

One of the biggest challenges in the lab is that it is very easy to get lost in small details and forget about the big picture. So, it is important to step back once in a while and regroup ourselves to balance both of these elements. 

4. What does it mean to you to be a CRI-Carson Family Fellow? What does the support enable you to accomplish? 

Thanks to this prestigious fellowship, my boss doesn’t have to worry about my salary, and we have extra funding for going to conferences or purchasing laptops and other things. Not worrying about the money part of your work and just focusing on your research and having the freedom to do whatever you want to do, it’s very freeing because then you really focus on your science. The more you focus, the better results you’re getting and the more productive you are. 

5. What do you aim to accomplish this year? 

If I publish my research that is funded by CRI (by the end of the year) that will be very nice. At least, bring it to the stage where we can submit it to different journals. More importantly, rather than just publishing the paper, to understand how these pioneer factors are working in tumor progression. If there’s a way to target them, that will be a new avenue for us to treat squamous cell carcinomas. 

6. Do you have any advice for aspiring cancer researchers? 

I think it is very important to be in the right environment to do great research. You need not only resources but also a good working environment, especially your colleagues, for a successful journey. At the end, science is a collaborative effort.