BIO SEMINAR: Neuro-Ecological Plasticity in Cancer: Epigenetic Reprogramming and Tumor–Neuron Interactions in Therapy Resistance

Guest: Engin Demirdizen

Title:  Neuro-Ecological Plasticity in Cancer: Epigenetic Reprogramming and Tumor–Neuron Interactions in Therapy Resistance   

Date / Time:  Aprıl, 14, 2026, 11:40

Location: https://sabanciuniv.zoom.us/j/95808457235

Abstract: Therapy resistance in cancer is increasingly driven by reversible cell-state transitions rather than fixed genetic changes. My research has focused on how epigenetic mechanisms enable cancer cells to dynamically reprogram their identity under stress.

During my PhD, I showed how chromatin misregulation can initiate aberrant transcriptional states. This led me, during my postdoctoral work in neuro-oncology, to investigate how such transcriptional programs drive invasive, stem-like tumor behavior. Extending this concept, I later demonstrated that therapeutic stress actively induces drug-tolerant persister states supported by distinct epigenetic programs.

Together, these findings point to a unifying principle: cancer cells exploit epigenetic plasticity to transition into alternative, survival-promoting states. Notably, many of these states exhibit neural-like features, suggesting that tumors co-opt neural-associated programs during adaptation.

In this seminar, I will present my ongoing work on Neuro-Ecological Plasticity in Cancer, which examines how intrinsic epigenetic reprogramming and extrinsic signals, particularly from the nervous system, cooperate to generate and stabilize therapy-resistant states. Using organoid models, single-cell and multi-omics, and functional genomics, I map the emergence of neural-like cancer cell states and identify their regulatory dependencies. I will also discuss co-culture systems to model tumor–neuron interactions and uncover signaling pathways that promote tumor progression.

Bio: Dr. Engin Demirdizen received his PhD from Heidelberg University, where he studied chromatin regulation and identified how mislocalization of the histone variant CENP-A contributes to oncogenic transcriptional programs.

He then conducted postdoctoral research in neuro-oncology at the National Center for Tumor Diseases in Heidelberg, where he identified regulators of glioma progression linking transcriptional control to invasive, stem-like behavior. He subsequently joined the University Medical Center Göttingen, focusing on therapy-induced drug-tolerant persister states in pancreatic cancer using organoids, multi-omics, and functional genomics.

He is currently an Assistant Professor and Staff Scientist at the University of Southern Denmark, where he leads an independent research program investigating how epigenetic plasticity drives cancer cell state transitions, metastasis, and therapy resistance.