Biography

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Erdal Toprak received his Ph.D. in Computational Biology and Biophysics in 2007 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he studied motility mechanisms of molecular motor proteins with Paul R. Selvin. He then moved to Roy Kishony's Lab at Harvard Medical School as a postdoctoral research fellow and studied evolution of antibiotic resistance.

Research Interest

  • Antibiotic Resistance and Sensitivity
  • Bacterial efflux pumps
  • Evolvable antimicrobials
  • Protein evolution
  • Single Molecule Biophysics

Publications

Featured Publications LegendFeatured Publications

On the Race to Starvation: How Do Bacteria Survive High Doses of Antibiotics?
Tamer YT, Toprak E Mol. Cell 2017 Dec 68 6 1019-1021
Increased substrate affinity in the Escherichia coli L28R dihydrofolate reductase mutant causes trimethoprim resistance.
Abdizadeh H, Tamer YT, Acar O, Toprak E, Atilgan AR, Atilgan C Phys Chem Chem Phys 2017 Apr
Mechanical slowing-down of cytoplasmic diffusion allows in vivo counting of proteins in individual cells.
Okumus B, Landgraf D, Lai GC, Bakhsi S, Arias-Castro JC, Yildiz S, Huh D, Fernandez-Lopez R, Peterson CN, Toprak E, El Karoui M, Paulsson J Nat Commun 2016 7 11641
Quantifying the Determinants of Evolutionary Dynamics Leading to Drug Resistance.
Chevereau G, Dravecká M, Batur T, Guvenek A, Ayhan DH, Toprak E, Bollenbach T PLoS Biol. 2015 Nov 13 11 e1002299

Honors & Awards

  • Southwestern Medical Foundation Scholar in Biomedical Research
    (2014-2019)
  • EMBO Installation Grant
    (2013-2018)
  • Human Frontiers Science Program Research Grant
    (2013-2016)
  • The Young Scientist Award by the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA)
    (2013-2016)
  • Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (CIG)
    (2012-2016)
  • Eugene Rabinowitch Graduate Fellowship
    (2007)
  • UIUC "Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students"
    (2007)