College of Pharmacy
Faculty and Staff
Ozgur Sahin, Ph.D.
Title: | Associate Professor |
Department: | Drug Discovery & Biomedical Sciences (DDBS) College of Pharmacy |
Email: | sahin@cop.sc.edu |
Phone: | 803-777-1891 |
Office: |
College of Pharmacy 715 Sumter Street - CLS 609D Columbia, SC 29208 |

Education
Ph.D. University of Heidelberg and DKFZ, Germany, 2008
M.S. University of Heidelberg, Germany, 2005
Postdoctoral Research
MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2012-2013
German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, GERMANY, 2008-2011
Research Interests
Dr. Sahin's laboratory focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of tumorigenesis, drug resistance and metastasis mainly in breast cancer using systems biology approaches. In this line, he utilizes cancer cell lines, patient-derived xenografts (PDXs), transgenic animal models, organoids (both PDX- and patient-derived), and patient tumor tissue to answer key questions on drug resistance, response and tolerance as well as metastasis.
Dr. Sahin combines expertise in high-throughput functional transcriptomics/proteomics, cancer cell biology and translational research, with those of the experts from the bioinformatics, medicinal chemistry, pathology and medical oncology fields to make impact on the lives of the cancer patients.
His current research interests include i) understanding the roles of lysyl oxidase (LOX) in chemotherapy resistance of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and developing novel LOX inhibitors. ii) targeting transforming acidic coiled-coil-containing protein 3 (TACC3) using our TACC3 inhibitor (BO-264) to eliminate highly aggressive and treatment-refractory cancers; and iii) elucidating the role of Phosphodiesterase 4D (PDE4D) in tamoxifen resistance and metastasis.
Research Topics:
- Breast cancer therapy
- Drug resistance and metastasis
- Tumor microenvironment
- Signaling pathways
- Drug discovery
Publications
Saatci O, Kaymak A, Raza U, Ersan PG, Akbulut O, Banister CE, Sikirzhytski V, Tokat UM, Aykut G, Ansari SA, Dogan HT, Dogan M, Jandaghi P, Isik A, Gundogdu F, Kosemehmetoglu K, Dizdar O, Aksoy S, Akyol A, Uner A, Buckhaults PJ, Riazalhosseini Y, Sahin O* (2020). Targeting lysyl oxidase (LOX) overcomes chemotherapy resistance in triple negative breast cancer. Nature Communications. 11(1):2416. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16199-4.
Akbulut O, Lengerli D, Saatci O, Duman E, Seker UOS, Isik A, Akyol A, Caliskan B, Banoglu E, Sahin O* (2020). A Highly Potent TACC3 Inhibitor as a Novel Anticancer Drug Candidate. Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. 19(6):1243-1254. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-19-0957.
Saatci O, Borgoni S, Akbulut O, Durmus S, Raza U, Eyupoglu E, Alkan C, Akyol A, Kutuk O, Wiemann S, Sahin O* (2018). Targeting PLK1 overcomes T-DM1 resistance via CDK1-dependent phosphorylation and inactivation of Bcl-2/xL in HER2-positive breast cancer. Oncogene. 37(17):2251-2269. doi: 10.1038/s41388-017-0108-9.
Mishra RR, Belder N, Ansari SA, Kayhan M, Bal H, Raza U, Ersan PG, Tokat UM, Eyupoglu E, Saatci O, Jandaghi P, Wiemann S, Uner A, Cekic C, Riazalhosseini Y, Sahin O* (2018). Re-activation of cAMP pathway by PDE4D inhibition represents a novel druggable axis for overcoming tamoxifen resistance in ER-positive breast cancer. Clinical Cancer Research. 24(8):1987-2001. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-17-2776.
Xu J, Acharya S, Sahin O, Wang Q, Saito Y, Yao J, Wang H, Li P, Zhang L, Lowery F, Kuo W, Xiao Y, Ensor J, Sahin A, Zhang X, Hung M, Zhang JD, Yu D (2015). 14-3-3ζ turns TGF-β’s function from tumor suppressor to metastasis promoter in breast cancer by contextual changes of Smad partners from p53 to Gli2. Cancer Cell. 27(2):177-92. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2014.11.025.
Sahin O, Wang Q, Brady S, Ellis K, Wang H, Li P, Chang C, Zhang Q, Priya P, Landis MD, Muller WJ, Esteva FJ, Chang J, Yu D (2014). Biomarker-guided sequential targeted therapies to overcome therapy resistance in rapidly evolving highly aggressive mammary tumors. Cell Research. 24(5):542-59. doi: 10.1038/cr.2014.37.
Uhlmann S, Mannsperger H, Zhang JD, Horvath EA, Schmidt S, Kublbeck M, Henjes F, Ward A, Tschulena U, Zweig K, Korf U, Wiemann S, Sahin O* (2012). Global microRNA level regulation of EGFR-driven cell cycle protein network in breast cancer. Molecular Systems Biology. (Featured article). 8:570. doi: 10.1038/msb.2011.100.
Jurmeister S, Baumann M, Balwierz A, Keklikoglou I, Ward A, Uhlmann S, Zhang JD, Wiemann S, Sahin O* (2012). MicroRNA-200c represses migration and invasion of breast cancer cells by targeting actin-regulatory proteins FHOD1 and PPM1F. Molecular and Cellular Biology. 32(3):633-51. doi: 10.1128/MCB.06212-11.
Uhlmann S, Zhang JD, Schwäger A, Mannsperger H, Riazalhosseini Y, Burmester S, Ward A, Korf U, Wiemann S, Sahin O* (2010). miR-200bc/429 cluster targets PLCgamma1 and differentially regulates proliferation and EGF-driven invasion than miR-200a/141 in breast cancer. Oncogene. 29(30):4297-306. doi: 10.1038/onc.2010.201.
Sahin O, Löbke C, Korf U, Appelhans H, Sültmann H, Poustka A, Wiemann S, Arlt D (2007). Combinatorial RNAi for quantitative protein network analysis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 104(16):6579-84. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0606827104.