Meet Yoldaş Cinemre

Yoldaş Cinemre

Now, as part of EVOLF, my project will focus on understanding the physical mechanisms of membrane deformation during cell division.

Hello everyone! My name is Yoldaş Cinemre and I’m happy to start my PhD in the Department of Bionanoscience of TU Delft, under the supervision of Timon Idema. I’m from Antalya, jewel of the so-called “Turkish riviera”. Before this position, I completed my degrees at Utrecht University (UU). My bachelor’s was in Liberal Arts and Sciences, so my curriculum spanned many fields from cognitive neurosciences to linguistics, but eventually I found my happy place in soft matter- and bio-physics. During my master’s, I delved more into these fields. In my thesis, I combined experimental and computational methods to study the mechanical properties of proteins using single-molecule force spectroscopy techniques.

Now, as part of EVOLF, my project will focus on understanding the physical mechanisms of membrane deformation during cell division. Replicated DNA chains need to be separated from each other and later be confined in two daughter cells. By developing molecular dynamics simulations, I will study how the interactions between the polymers and the membrane curvature lead to the reshaping of the vesicle to induce division. Having a better understanding of the physics, I hope to help discover methods which will allow synthetic cells to divide autonomously.

Outside of work, my jam is improvisational theatre! With my improv group, we put on shows regularly in Utrecht. Other than that, I play the acoustic guitar, and enjoy playing volleyball, and football.

I’m confident that this century will be marked by humanity’s expertise in understanding biological systems. It’s exciting to be part of the kitchen that cooks the future’s technology!