Button to scroll to the top of the page.
sarinay cenik, elif
No

Elif Sarinay Cenik

Assistant Professor
Molecular Biosciences



esarinay@utexas.edu

Phone: 512-232-4468

Office Location
PAT 241

Elif Sarinay Cenik received her BS in Molecular Biology and Genetics from Bilkent University in Turkey, followed by her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School under the tutelage of Dr. Phillip D. Zamore. She then completed postdoctoral training with Nobelist Dr. Andrew Z. Fire in Genetics and Pathology at Stanford University.

Our research is providing an unbiased systematic analysis of how translational output is connected with gene regulatory pathways to ensure the tight coupling between organismal development and key cellular decisions. Such analysis will also provide concrete steps towards understanding disease systems where the connection between cellular growth and ribosomes is broken. For example, stoichiometric imbalances within ribosomal proteins and abnormally large nucleoli are frequent in cancers. Similarly, haploinsufficiencies within ~16 different ribosomal proteins cause a genetic disorder, Diamond Blackfan Anemia, which leads to congenital abnormalities and hematological defects combined with increased cancer risk.

  • Panici B, Nakajima H, Carlston CM, Ozadam H, Cenik C, Cenik ES. Loss of coordinated expression between ribosomal and mitochondrial genes revealed by comprehensive characterization of a large family with a rare Mendelian disorder. Genomics. 2021 Apr 20;113(4):1895-1905. 
  •  Byeon GW, Cenik ES, Jiang L, Tang H, Das R, Barna M. Functional and structural basis of extreme conservation in vertebrate 5' untranslated regions. Nat Genet. 2021 Apr 5. 
  • Cenik ES, Meng X, Tang NH, Hall RN, Arribere JA, Cenik C, Jin Y, Fire A. Maternal Ribosomes Are Sufficient for Tissue Diversification during Embryonic Development in C. elegans. Dev Cell. 2019 Mar 25;48(6):811-826.e6. Featured in Faculty of 1000, previewed in the same issue of Dev Cell (Haag and Dinman, 2019)
  • Arribere, JA, Cenik ES, Jain N, Hess G, Lee C, Bassik MC, Fire AF. (2016). Translation Readthrough Mitigation. Nature, Jun 1;534(7609):719-723. 
  • Cenik C, Cenik ES, Byeon GW, Grubert F, Candille S, Spacek D, Alsallakh B, Tilgner H, Araya CL, Tang H, Ricci E, Snyder MP. (2015). Integrative analysis of RNA, translation, and protein levels reveals distinct regulatory variation across humans. Genome Research, Nov;25(11):1610-21. 
  • Cenik ES, Zamore PD. (2011). Argonaute proteins. Curr Biol, Jun 21;21(12):R446-9. 
  • Cenik ES, Fukunaga R, Lu G, Dutcher R, Wang Y, Tanaka Hall TM, Zamore PD. (2011). Phosphate and R2D2 restrict the substrate specificity of Dicer-2, an ATP-driven ribonuclease. Mol Cell, Apr 22;42(2):172-84, Featured in Faculty of 1000.
  • Suer E, Sayrac S, Sarinay E, Ozturk HE, Turkoz M, Ichinose A, Nagatake T, Ahmed K. (2008). Variation in the attachment of Streptococcus pneumoniae to human pharyngeal epithelial cells after treatment with S-carboxymethylcysteine. Infect Chemother, Aug;14(4):333-6.
  • Baglan PH, Sarinay E, Ahmed K, Ozkan M, Bozday G, Bozday AM, Ozden A. (2006). Turkish isolates of Helicobacter pylori belong to the Middle Eastern genotypes. Clin Microbiol Infect, Jan;12(1):96-98.

 University of Texas, Austin, College of Nature Sciences, Faculty Service Award, 2021 

Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA), NIH NIGMS, 2021

Walter V. and Idun Berry Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, 2013-2016

Stanford School of Medicine Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2012-2013

Turkish National Academy of Sciences Outstanding Achievement in Science Scholarship, 2003-2006