Onur Dagliyan

Onur Dagliyan

Assistant Professor
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

  • Dr. Onur Dagliyan is a neuroscientist with a background in biophysics and bioengineering, dedicated to bridging spatiotemporal scales from molecular dynamics to neural circuits in order to understand neuroplasticity and remedy impaired neuroplasticity in neurological diseases. 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.

    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)
    The Swedish Brain Foundation (Hjärnfonden)
    The Strategic Research Area Neuroscience (StratNeuro)
    Karolinska Institutet Allocation GrantGoldenson Fellow 2020
    William Randolph Hearst Fund 2019-2020
    Alice and Joseph Brooks Postdoctoral Fellowship 2017-2018
    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

Research

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
  • Swedish Society for Medical Research

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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