Welcome to visiting professor Erdem Karatekin from Yale

SPPIN warmly welcomes Prof. Erdem Karatekin who is on sabbatical in the Membrane Dynamics team for 6 months.

After obtaining a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Columbia University on the soft-matter physics and chemistry of polymerization reactions, Erdem did post-doctoral work with Francoise Brochard-Wyart at the Curie Institute in Paris, studying the dynamics of transient pores in lipid bilayers. He was a CNRS chargé de recherche at the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique (Secretion lab, CNRS UPR 1929) in Paris from 2003-2008 before taking a leave and moving to Yale University. After working with James E. Rothman on mechanisms of synaptic vesicle fusion, he started his own laboratory in 2012 as a faculty in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale School of Medicine.

The Karatekin laboratory studies cell membrane dynamics and how they relate to cellular function. They use cells ranging from bacteria to cells specialized in secreting neurotransmitters (neurons) or hormones (neuroendocrine cells). The former are much simpler, yet very little is known about membrane dynamics in bacteria. The latter traffic membranes abundantly and on-demand, but mechanisms are complex. Some common principles are emerging that connect these extremes.

For more information and recent publications, see: https://campuspress.yale.edu/karatekinlab/

At SPPIN, Erdem will collaborate closely with the groups of Bruno Gasnier, studying how endosomal compartments at the synapse contribute to membrane homeostasis, and Martin Oheim, on advanced imaging techniques. A recent International Emerging Actions (IEA) grant from the CNRS will allow the collaboration to be extended after Erdem’s stay.