Feyza Engin, Ph.D., joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Medicine and Public Health in October 2014 and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry. She is an affiliate faculty in Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology, and Endocrinology, Metabolism and Obesity Division of Department of Medicine.
Dr. Engin obtained her Pharmacy and Master’s degrees from Istanbul University School of Pharmacy. She received her Ph.D. degree in Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine with Dr. Brendan Lee, where she demonstrated for the first time that Notch signaling regulates both the terminal differentiation of osteoblasts and osteoblast-dependent osteoclast activity during skeletal development, and that dysregulation of these programs leads to bone disorders including osteoporosis, osteosclerosis and osteosarcomas.
Following completion of her graduate studies, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Gökhan Hotamisligil at Harvard University for her postdoctoral studies. There she demonstrated that endoplasmic reticulum stress and the aberrant unfolded protein responses in pancreatic β-cells play a critical role in the progression of autoimmune diabetes and mitigating endoplasmic reticulum stress pharmacologically can prevent type 1 diabetes in preclinical animal models.
In her independent position, her team generated the first genetic inducible deletion model of the ER stress response in NOD mice and demonstrated that loss of beta cell unfolded protein response (UPR) sensor, IRE1, during early stages of disease prevents autoimmune diabetes. Recently, Dr. Engin and her team demonstrated a previously unrecognized link between the UPR and senescence/immunosurveillance in beta cells during T1D development. Dr. Engin’s current research focuses on beta cell stress, organelle dysfunction, senescence, and beta cell-immune cell crosstalk in type 1 diabetes.
Honors & Awards
Vilas Associate Award (2023)
Review Editor, Molecular Metabolism (2021 - 2023)
Invited speaker, joint NIH/NIDDK and Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR)-INMD Heterogeneity of Diabetes Symposium (The 100th anniversary of the discovery of Insulin) (2021)
Director, Enrichment Program, Wisconsin Diabetes Research Center (2021 - present)
Finalist, Pathway to Stop Diabetes, Accelerator Award, American Diabetes Association (2018)
Rising Star in Diabetes, HeIDi Award Nominee, Novo Nordisk-Helmholtz Diabetes Center (2016)
Shaw Scientist Award, Greater Milwaukee Foundation (2016)
Research Scientist Development Award (KO1), NIH (2014)
Career Development Award, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (2014)
Travel Award, Harvard School of Public Health Postdoc Association (2012)
Vice President, Harvard School of Public Health Postdoc Association (2011)
Young Investigator Award, The American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (2007)
2nd Place Platform Presenter, Molecular & Human Genetics Retreat, Baylor College of Medicine (2005)
Travel Award, Istanbul University Research Fund (2001)