The project by Assistant Professor Dr. Cihan Taştan and his project team from the Üsküdar University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (English), submitted within the scope of the TÜSEB Group B R&D Project Call, has been accepted.
Assistant Professor Dr. Cihan Taştan from Üsküdar University, Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (English), received a positive response for the project submitted under the 'TÜSEB Group B R&D Project Call' conducted in March, with the project title: 'In Vitro and Ex Vivo Investigation of Exon7/Intron7-Targeted Next-Generation CRISPR-Prime Editing for SMN2 Gene Regulation and SMN1-Encoding Motor Neuron Cell-Specific Neural Lentivirus Approaches in Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Disease'.
Taştan stated, "Since we started our efforts to develop domestic gene therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) disease in 2021, we have reached a stage where we have developed unique gene therapy methods that are one-of-a-kind in the world. We are very happy that our application to the Turkish Health Institutes Association (TÜSEB) for developing prototype SMA gene therapy candidates, which we will produce as a result of our project, has been approved with full support. As a result of this 24-month supported project, we will have identified our prototype gene therapy candidates that we aim to use in SMA model animals. I am sincerely grateful to our Founding Rector, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, and all our administrators, who enabled us to form our expert research team and establish TRGENMER (Transgenic Cell Technologies Application and Research Center), where we conduct Turkey's leading Gene Therapy and Cancer Immunotherapy R&D studies, to make these studies possible."
Taştan's team, which is carrying out the project, includes; Associate Professor Dr. Serdar Ceylaner, a researcher from the Intergen Genetic Diseases Diagnosis, Research, and Application Center; TRGENMER master's scholarship students Enes Bal, Sibel Pınar Odabaş, Gamze Yelgen, Ayşenur Kurt, Bahar Çandur; and undergraduate scholarship student Görkem Akgül.