Onur Dagliyan

Onur Dagliyan

Assistant Professor

Bioengineering, biophysics, neurobiology, cancer biology

Visiting address: Solnavägen 9, 17177 Stockholm
Postal address: C2 Medicinsk biokemi och biofysik, C2 Molekylär neurobiologi Dagliyan, 171 77 Stockholm
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About me

  • Lab website
    Google Scholar Profile
    ORCID Profile

    Background
    Dr. Onur Dagliyan is a group leader with a background in biophysics, bioengineering, neurobiology, and cancer biology. Dr. Dagliyan aims to bridge spatiotemporal scales from protein dynamics to cellular circuits in order to understand cellular plasticity in health and disease. A cornerstone of Dr. Dagliyan’s research is the development of the concept of extrinsic order and disorder in proteins, a framework that elucidates how cellular signals regulate order-to-disorder and disorder-to-order transitions in protein organization and function. Dr. Dagliyan has created platforms that leverage these extrinsic order/disorder mechanisms to control protein conformations with light or small molecules in vivo. By applying these concepts, his research group at the Karolinska Institute aims to reveal the fundamental mechanisms of neuroplasticity underlying learning and memory and cancer cell plasticity underlying drug-acquired resistance.

    Education & Training
    Research fellow in the laboratory of Michael Greenberg, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA. Specialization: Molecular neurobiology
    Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics, UNC School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, USA. Specialization: Protein signaling and engineering
    B.S, and M.S. in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul. Specialization: Machine learning, drug screening, molecular clock


    Grants&Awards:
    European Research Council (ERC) starting grant
    Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) Svenska Sällskapet för Medicinsk Forskning (SSMF) starting grant
    Knut and Alice Wallenberg (KAW) Foundation Research grant with Patrik Ernfors and Håkan Olausson
    The Swedish Brain Foundation (Hjärnfonden) research grant
    Stiftelsen för Strategisk Forskning (SSF) research grant with Jimin Park
    The Strategic Research Area Neuroscience (StratNeuro) starting grant
    The Strategic Research Area Neuroscience (StratNeuro) technology grant
    Karolinska Institutet Allocation Grant
    Goldenson Fellow 2020, Harvard University
    William Randolph Hearst Fund 2019-2020, Harvard University
    Alice and Joseph Brooks Postdoctoral Fellowship 2017-2018, Harvard University
    Advanced imaging certificate from Max Planck Institute of Neuroscience 2017
    UNC Lineberger Graduate Fellow of the Year 2014
    Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellowship 2012-2015
    National Science Foundation- Materials Computation Center Travel Award 2012
    Director’s Award from the Biological and Biomedical Sciences Program, UNC 2010

    Academic Merits:
    -Chairperson of the Faculty for Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute
    -Doctoral supervision course completion
    -Pedagogy course completion
    -Board and committee memberships: Swedish Society of Neuroscience (SSFN) board member, Karolinska MBB Prefekt (Chair) selection committee,    Karolinska MBB faculty recruitment committee member
    -Reviewer for Journals: Nature Communications; Nucleic Acid Research; PLoS Computational Biology; and others.
    -Reviewer for grants: University of Gothenburg KAW nomination candidate reviewer Swiss National Science Foundation grant reviewer, Karolinska       Institute Fonden reviewer

Research

  • Current Interest: Molecular neurobiology, neuroplasticity, cancer biology, protein engineering, biosensors, molecular optogenetics, extrinsic order and disorder

Teaching

  • Lecturer, “Neuronal circuits for appetite, food intake and satiety“, Karolinska  Institutet, 2022-
    Lecturer, “Protein Structure“, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-
    Lecturer, “DNA and RNA Structure“, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-

    Lecturer, "Lipid Lab", Karolinska Institute, 2025-

    Lecturer, “Introduction to biochemistry: Metabolism“, Karolinska  Institutet, 2022-
    Teaching assistant, Macromolecular Equilibria course, 2012
    Teaching assistant, Chemical and Biological Engineering Senior Project course, 2009
    Teaching assistant, Process Design course, 2008

Articles

All other publications

Grants

  • European Research Council
    1 May 2023 - 30 April 2028
    Protein signaling in cells is precisely coordinated in space and time. Molecular chemogenetics, optogenetics, and biosensors have generated a scientific revolution enabling the spatiotemporal codes of protein signaling in single cells. However, it is a great challenge to study protein dynamics in a physiological multicellular environment due to the extensive variability in protein signaling within individual cells, as well as the sparsity of driver cells responsible for a specific physiological process. To build causal relationships between proteins and multi-cellular behavior, we will develop broadly applicable technologies by engineering proteins enabling the control of target proteins with light, exclusively in the relevant driver cell subpopulations. These approaches can be used in any biological field in which protein signaling is critical for multi-cellular behavior, but here we will focus on three different stages of a challenging neurobiology process. Upon sensory experience, for example, by learning a new task, only the subsets of neurons within a corresponding brain region switch to the active state. It is largely unknown how proteins that are activated in these sparsely activated neuronal circuits operate in space and time. Our technologies will enlighten the spatiotemporal dynamics of proteins in active neuron subpopulations responding to certain learning tasks in mice. Understanding such learning neuronal circuit responses at the molecular level will pave the way to develop new therapeutic approaches for brain disorders including epilepsy, depression, and autism spectrum disorders.
  • Swedish Research Council
    1 January 2022 - 31 December 2025
  • Starting grant
    Swedish Society for Medical Research
  • Starting grant
    The Strategic Research Area Neuroscience (StratNeuro)
  • Project grant
    Hjärnfonden
  • Technology grant
    StratNeuro
  • Sweden-South Korea collaboration grant
    Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research
  • KAW project grant
    Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation

Employments

  • Research Fellow, Neurobiology, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 2016-
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-2028

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