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Elif Sarinay Cenik

  • Assistant Professor
  • Computational Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Molecular Biology
  • Molecular Biosciences
  • Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Program
Profile image of Elif Sarinay Cenik
esarinay@utexas.edu
PAT
241
Sarinay-Cenik Lab

Biography

Elif Sarinay Cenik received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and 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 Departments at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Research

We investigate how ribosomes and nucleolus regulate gene expression & metabolism and influence development and aging. Our interdisciplinary approach integrates genetics, genomics, computational and molecular biology. Here are some of the outstanding questions we are interested in:

  1. Does the nucleolus, the nucleus's central hub, actively contribute to the organization of our genetic material and gene expression?
  2. How do organisms coordinate growth across organs and tissues, and regulate ribosome activity to ensure synchronized growth?
  3. Can we more accurately predict protein abundance and cellular metabolism?
  4. How do ribosomes communicate with cellular metabolic pathways to regulate metazoan growth and organism-wide longevity?


 

Research Areas

  • Molecular Biology or Genetics
  • Computational Medicine or Computational Science
  • Human Development
  • AI for Health or Computational Science

Fields of Interest

  • Molecular Biology, Genetics & Genomics
  • Molecular Nutrition and Metabolism

Education

  • PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School

Publications

  • View  Publications on PubMed

    Selected publications:

    1. Surya A, Bolton BM, Rothe R, Mejia-Trujillo R, Zhao Q, Leonita A, Liu Y, Rangan R, Gorusu Y, Nguyen P, Can Cenik C, Sarinay Cenik E. Cytosolic Ribosomal Protein Haploinsufficiency affects Mitochondrial Morphology and Respiration. bioRxiv (2024) 2024.04.16.589775. Article link

      NOTE: You can find the raw datasets for this manuscript in the following Texas Data Repository link

    2. Al-Refaie N., Padovani F., Binando F., Hornung J., Zhao Q., Towbin B.D., Cenik E.S., Stroustrup N., Schmoller K.M., Cabianca D.S. An mTOR/RNA pol I axis shapes chromatin architecture in response to fasting. bioRxiv (2023) 07.22.550032, Article link
    3. Zhao, Q., Rangan, R., Weng, S., Ozdemir, C. , Cenik, E. S. Inhibition of ribosome biogenesis in the epidermis is sufficient to trigger organism-wide growth quiescence independently of nutritional status in C. elegans (2023). PLOS Biology. Article link

    4. Freeman, TF. Zhao, Q., Surya A, Rothe R, Cenik E. S. Ribosome biogenesis disruption mediated chromatin structure changes revealed by SRAtac, a customizable end to end analysis pipeline for ATAC-seq (2023). BMC Genomics, 10.1186/s12864-023-09576-y. Article link

      NOTE: You can find the SRAtac tool, an end-to-end customizable analysis pipeline for alignment and ATAC-seq analysis across different model organisms, at the following GitHub repositories: https://github.com/trev-f/SRAlign, https://github.com/trev-f/SRAtac

    5. Surya, A. & Cenik, E.S. Cell autonomous and non-autonomous consequences of deviations in translation machinery on organism growth and the connecting signalling pathways (2022) Open Biology April 27; 12: 210308. Review article link
    6. Panici, B., Nakajima, H., Carlston, C. M., Ozadam, H., Cenik, C., Cenik, E. S. (2021). Loss of coordinated expression between ribosomal and mitochondrial genes revealed by comprehensive characterization of a large family with a rare Mendelian disorder (2021). Genomics. July; 113(4):1895-1905. Article link
    7. Rao, S, Hoskins, I, Garcia, D, Tonn, T, Ozadam, H, Cenik, E.S, Cenik, C (2021). Genes with 5’terminal oligopyrimidine tracts preferentially escape global suppression of translation by the SARS-CoV-2 NSP1 protein (2021). RNA. Jun 14. 2021 Recipient of the RNA Journal Prize. Article link
    8. Byeon, GW, Cenik, ES, Jiang, L, Tang, H, Das, R, & Barna, M. (2021). Functional and structural basis of extreme non-coding conservation in vertebrate mRNAs (2021). Nature Genetics, highlighted in the same issue with News & Views by Gupta & Beaudoin. Article link

    9. Cenik ES, Meng X, Tang NH ,Hall RN, Arribere JA, Cenik C, Jin Y, Fire AZ (2019). Maternal ribosomes are sufficient for tissue diversification during embryonic development in C. elegans. Developmental Cell, Mar25;48(6), 811-826.e6. Featured in Faculty of 1000. Article link

      Highlighted in the same issue with a preview by Haag & Dinman, 2019, Link

    10. 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. Article link
    11. 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. Article link
    12. Cenik, ES, & Zamore, PD (2011). Argonaute proteins. Current Biology, 21(12), R446-9. Review Article link
    13. 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. Molecular Cell, 42(2), 172-184. Featured in Faculty of 1000. Article link

Awards

  • Welch Foundation Research Grant, 2023
  • UT Austin CNS Catalyst Award, joint with Jon Pierce, 2022
  • University of Texas, Austin, College of Nature Sciences, Faculty Service Award, 2021
  • Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA), National Institute of Health, NIGMS, 2021
  • Walter V. and Idun Berry Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, 2013-2016
  • Stanford School of Medicine Dean's Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2012-2013