RaDiChal Laboratory explains gene therapies to students in Türkiye!
Sharing the process of the Rare Disease Genetic Treatment Competition (RaDiChal) Laboratory and the aims of this important initiative, Asst. Prof. Cihan Taştan stated that "We have built this laboratory especially for students in Türkiye to understand and apply gene therapies."
Asst. Prof. Cihan Taştan stated that "The RaDiChal competition is based on developing new generation, destructive gene therapy technologies that can be used in the treatment of more than seven thousand genetic diseases in the field of genetic therapies due to its vision and mission."
Director of Üsküdar University Transgenic Cell Technologies and Epigenetics Application and Research Center (TRGENMER) and Project Manager of MESSAGE (Microgravity Associated Genetics) experiment Asst. Prof. Cihan Taştan shared the process of the Rare Disease Genetic Treatment Competition (RaDiChal) Laboratory and the aims of this important initiative.
Why was the RaDiChal Laboratory founded?
Stating that the Rare Disease Genetic Treatment Competition (RaDiChal) Laboratory was established to meet the great need for genetic engineering and gene therapies in Türkiye, Asst. Prof. Cihan Taştan said that "We have built this laboratory especially for students in Türkiye to understand and apply gene therapies."
Asst. Prof. Cihan Taştan stated that the infrastructure was designed to perform genetic engineering techniques and added that "Our students from all over Türkiye who need genetic engineering and genetic treatments and want to learn will now continue to receive their training in the laboratory of our Rare Disease Challenge, that is, RaDiChal competition, and continue to participate in the competition. At the same time, we will be able to use advanced genetic engineering techniques such as CRISPR in this laboratory for our plant biotechnology studies, and thus we will be able to develop new generation knowledge-based technologies."
It is aimed to train scientists needed in the field of genetic engineering
Stating that the laboratory offers education and research opportunities for students from all over Türkiye and thus aims to train scientists needed in the field of genetic engineering, Asst. Prof. Cihan Taştan expressed that "The RaDiChal competition is based on developing new generation, destructive gene therapy technologies that can be used in the treatment of more than seven thousand genetic diseases in the field of genetic therapies in accordance with its vision and mission. The number of laboratories and scientists who can implement these technologies is almost non-existent in our country. For this reason, we launched our RaDiChal competition in 2021 with the aim to increase the quality and number of scientists."
When did the RaDiChal Laboratory open?
Being initiated by the RaDIChal (Rare Disease Challenge) team, the competition, which consists of semi-final and final stage, was established with undergraduate students under the leadership of Asst. Prof. Cihan Taştan, and the competition set the following diseases as target: Beta Teassemia (Mediterranean anemia), Huntington's and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in 2023. The Radichal (Rare Disease Challenge) competition will now be held in the Teknofest Biotechnology Innovation Competition branch as the "Rare Diseases Genetic Treatment" category in its fifth year.
RaDiChal Laboratory was opened within Üsküdar University within the scope of the RaDiChal 2023 Final with the participation of TÜBİTAK President Prof. Hasan Mandal, President of Üsküdar University Prof. Nevzat Tarhan, and Rector Prof. Nazife Güngör.
Üsküdar News Agency (ÜNA)