Departments/Faculty>Full-time Faculty Directory

Faculty Information

Halil Aydin, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Department of Molecular Pathobiology
New York University College of Dentistry
Schwartz Hall, 9th Floor,
Rooms 902 (Lab) and 902C (Office)
345 East 24th Street, New York, NY 10010
halil.aydin@nyu.edu
www.aydinlab.org
 

Visit the Aydin Lab Website:

EDUCATION

D.V.M., Veterinary Medicine, Istanbul University, 2007
Ph.D., Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Toronto, 2016
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, San Francisco 2016-2020

HONORS/CREDENTIALS

  • Barth Syndrome Foundation Idea Award, 2024
  • Boettcher Foundation Biomedical Research Award, 2023
  • Human Frontiers Science Program Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2017
  • Stuart Alan Hoffman Prize, University of Toronto, 2016
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship International, 2015
  • University of Toronto Fellowship, 2011 and 2014

RESEARCH INTERESTS / PROFESSIONAL OVERVIEW

Halil Aydin studies the underlying mechanisms of degenerative diseases such as brain degeneration. To better understand the molecular mechanisms of life processes and how they are corrupted by disease, his work focuses on the conserved pathways that control the function of subcellular compartments in cells. His laboratory utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach that bridges detailed biochemical and cellular studies with molecular imaging and perform robust quantitative analysis of critical cellular mechanisms. The malfunction of essential cellular machines underlies a plethora of errors in key physiological processes and strongly contributes to the development of a growing list of metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and age-related illnesses. The long-term goal of his laboratory is to develop innovative approaches to understand how cellular machines function at biochemical depth and decipher the links between cellular dysfunction and its relationship to metabolic and neurological disorders.

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

For a full list, please see the National Library of Medicine.

  1. Liu, A., Kage, F., Abdulkareem, A. F., Aguirre-Huamani, M. P., Sapp, G.M., Aydin, H., Higgs, H.N. Fatty acyl-coenzyme A activates mitochondrial division through oligomerization of MiD49 and MiD51. Nature Cell Biology 2024
  2. von der Malsburg, A., Sapp, G. M., Zuccaro, K. E., von Appen, A., Moss III, F. R., Kalia, R., Bennett, J. A., Abriata, L.A., Dal Peraro, M., van der Laan, M., Frost, A.+, Aydin, H.+ Structural mechanism of mitochondrial membrane remodeling by human OPA1. Nature 2023 620: 1101-1108.
  3. Bennett, J. A., Steward, L. R., Rudolph, J., Voss, A. P., and Aydin H. The structure of the human LACTB filament reveals the mechanisms of assembly and membrane binding. PLOS Biology 2022 20(12): e3001899
  4. Manicki, M., Aydin, H., Abriata, L. A., Overmyer, K. A., Guerra, R. M., Coon, J. J., Dal Peraro, M., Frost, A., Pagliarini, D. J. Structure and functionality of a multimeric human COQ7:COQ9 complex. Molecular Cell 2022 82, 1-17

CURRENT FUNDING

National Institutes of Health
R35GM150942: Regulation of mitochondrial morphology and functional versatility

Department of Energy
DE-SC0025606: Mechanism and cellular location of thylakoid membrane biogenesis in cyanobacteria

Barth Syndrome Foundation
Idea Award: Investigating the molecular basis for the impaired mitochondrial dynamics in Barth Syndrome