Selin Tüzüner

I am a master student from the Technical University of Berlin, who joined the group of Dr Filipa Simões at the IDRM to complete my master’s thesis project.

With the Simões group, we are investigating the role of macrophages in the regeneration of cardiac tissue after myocardial infarction. Macrophages are among the first immune cells to reach the heart after injury, and they contribute to both scar formation as a repair mechanism and tissue regeneration. We utilise the zebrafish as a model organism since it has the capability to regenerate its heart upon cardiac injury. To understand how the zebrafish heart repairs itself after injury, it is important to identify the regions of the zebrafish genome that are crucial for the regenerative capacities of the heart cells.

My master's project will focus on two aims:

First, to characterise the heterogeneity of cardiac macrophages in steady state and regeneration by utilising scRNAseq and ATAC-seq.

Second, to decipher the microenvironment of macrophages by investigating the dynamic cellular crosstalk relationships occurring between macrophages and the regenerating cardiac niche, by utilising spatially resolved transcriptomics.

Prior to joining the Simões group, I was an intern in the Hebrok group at Diabetes Center of the University of California San Francisco for 2 months. The group studies the mechanisms that underlie mammalian pancreas organogenesis and pancreatic diseases.

I completed my bachelor's degree in Biotechnology (BSc) at the Technical University of Berlin. During my studies I worked as a student assistant, in a 3D Bioprinting startup called Cellbricks GmbH, where I was working with Dr. Anna Klara Amler on establishing a 3D bioprinted jawbone model. In my bachelor’s thesis I was investigating the differentiation of primary human osteoclasts in 2D culture and 3D-bioprinted constructs for the implementation of osteoclasts in the 3D bioprinted jaw model.