SzSA YearBook 2018/19

SZENT-GYÖRGYI JUNIOR MENTORS
BALÁZS VEDELEK
University of Szeged,
Department of Biochemistry and MolecularBiology
Address: Közép fasor 52., H-6726 Szeged, Hungary
RESEARCH AREA
Telomeres are nucleoprotein complexes responsible for
the protection of chromosome integrity. Telomeres hide
the ends of the chromosomes from DNA repair mechanism
to prevent chromosome fusions. Telomeres also buffer the
’end replication problem’ by the telomerase enzyme, which
can elongate the chromosomes ends. In human somatic
cells the telomerase is inactive; the chromosomes are
continuously shortening, which results in the senescence of
the cells. In tumours however the telomerase is reactivated
and provides the possibility of unlimited cell divisions. In
our lab we study the mechanisms behind telomerase gene
activation in tumours.
TECHNIQUES AVAILABLE IN THE LAB
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Sike, A., Nagy, E., Vedelek, B., et al. (2014) mRNA levels
of related Abcbgenes change opposite to each other
upon histonedeacetylase inhibition in drug-resistant
rathepatoma cells. PLoSOne. 2014;9(1): e84915. Published
2014 Jan 7. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084915
Vedelek, B., Blastyák, A., Boros, I.M. (2015) Cross-Species
Interaction between Rapidly Evolving Telomere-Specific
Drosophila Proteins. PLoSOne. 2015;10(11): e0142771.
Published 2015 Nov 13. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142771
Pahi, Z., Borsos, B.N., Vedelek, B., et al. (2017) TAF10 and
TAF10b partially redundant roles during Drosophila
melanogastermorphogenesis Transcription. 2017;8(5):
297-306.
IDNA extraction (blood and tissue samples), DNA
quantitation (NanoDrop spectrophotometer and Quantus
fluorometer), primer design, different PCR techniques
(Repeat-Primed PCR, Real-Time PCR, Digital PCR), agarose gel
electrophoresis, Sanger sequencing and amplicon fragment
length analysis. Next generation sequencing (target region/
panel and exome sequencing) and bioinformatic analysis
of NGS data. Clinical and mutation database management
and variant effect prediction.
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