Dr. Nukhet Aykin-Burns

McCord Research Foundation Fellow, University of Iowa

Dr. Nukhet Aykin-Burns is an Assistant Research Scientist in the Free Radical and Radiation Biology Program, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Free Radical and Radiation Biology at the University of Iowa. She is also the recipient of one of three inaugural McCord Foundation Fellowships.

A native of Turkey, Dr. Aykin-Burns received a bachelor’s degree in food engineering from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey in 1995 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 2002.

From 1995 to 1997, Dr. Aykin-Burns worked in industry in Balikesir, Turkey. Following that, she served as a graduate research assistant and graduate teaching assistant in the Chemistry Department of the University of Missouri-Rolla. Most recently, Dr. Aykin-Burns was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Free Radical and Radiation Biology Program at the University of Iowa from 2003 to 2007.

Her awards and honors include: the National Institutes of Health (NIH) – Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award and Postdoctoral Training Fellowship; the Vere D. Wenger Travel Award from the University of Iowa’s Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center; and the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in the Chemistry Department at the University of Missouri-Rolla.

Dr. Aykin-Burns’ research interests include the role of reactive oxygen/nitrogen species in aging and aging-related diseases; the differences between normal and tumor cell metabolism; the effects of environmental toxins such as lead and PCBs on oxidative stress and aging-related diseases; and the effects of glucose metabolism, mitochondrial free radicals and oxidative stress on cancer phenotypes.

Her research has been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Biomedical Journal, Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Cancer Research, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology and Biomedical Chromatography, among other publications.

Dr. Aykin-Burns is a member of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine and the American Chemical Society. She is also a reviewer for the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the Sick Kids Foundation of Canada. Dr. Aykin-Burns has served as judge for the James F. Jakobsen Graduate Forum and for the Travel Awards of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine. She has supervised graduate students in the Free Radical and Radiation Biology program as well as the Undergraduate Summer Research Program.

Dr. Aykin-Burns lives in Iowa City with her husband and daughter.

The McCord Research Foundation provides fellowships to post-doctoral researchers in the University of Iowa Biosciences Graduate School Program in the fields of Free Radical, Anatomy and Cell Biology.

Publications

Yusof, M., Neal, R., Aykin, N. and Ercal, N. (2000) High performance liquid chromatography analysis of D-penicillamine by derivatization with N-(1-pyrenyl)maleimide (NPM). Biomed Chromatogr 14, 535-540

Aykin, N., Neal, R., Yusof, M. and Ercal, N. (2001) Determination of captopril in biological samples by high-performance liquid chromatography with ThioGlo 3 derivatization. Biomed Chromatogr 15, 427-432

Ercal, N., Yang, P. and Aykin, N. (2001) Determination of biological thiols by high-performance liquid chromatography following derivatization by ThioGlo maleimide reagents. J Chromatogr B Biomed Sci Appl 753, 287-292

Ercal, N., Gurer-Orhan, H. and Aykin-Burns, N. (2001) Toxic metals and oxidative stress part I: mechanisms involved in metal-induced oxidative damage. Curr Top Med Chem 1, 529-539

Ercal, N., Aykin-Burns, N., Gurer-Orhan, H. and McDonald, J. D. (2002) Oxidative stress in a phenylketonuria animal model. Free Radic Biol Med 32, 906-911

Aykin-Burns, N., Laegeler, A., Kellogg, G. and Ercal, N. (2003) Oxidative effects of lead in young and adult Fisher 344 rats. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 44, 417-420

Ahmad, I. M., Aykin-Burns, N., Sim, J. E., Walsh, S. A., Higashikubo, R., Buettner, G. R., Venkataraman, S., Mackey, M. A., Flanagan, S. W., Oberley, L. W. and Spitz, D. R. (2005) Mitochondrial O2•- and H2O2 mediate glucose deprivation-induced cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in human cancer cells. J Biol Chem 280, 4254-4263

Aykin-Burns, N., Franklin, E. A. and Ercal, N. (2005) Effects of N-acetylcysteine on lead-exposed PC-12 cells. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 49, 119-123

Neal, R., Aykin-Burns, N., Ercal, N. and Zigler, J. S., Jr. (2005) Pb2+ exposure alters the lens alpha A-crystallin protein profile in vivo and induces cataract formation in lens organ culture. Toxicology 212, 1-9

Andringa, K. K., Coleman, M. C., Aykin-Burns, N., Hitchler, M. J., Walsh, S. A., Domann, F. E. and Spitz, D. R. (2006) Inhibition of glutamate cysteine ligase activity sensitizes human breast cancer cells to the toxicity of 2-deoxy-D-glucose. Cancer Res 66, 1605-1610

Aykin-Burns, N. and Ercal, N. (2006) Effects of selenocystine on lead-exposed Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) and PC-12 cells. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 214, 136-143

Slane, B. G.*, Aykin-Burns, N.*, Smith, B. J., Kalen, A. L., Goswami, P. C., Domann, F. E. and Spitz, D. R. (2006) Mutation of succinate dehydrogenase subunit C results in increased O2•-, oxidative stress, and genomic instability. Cancer Res 66, 7615-7620 (* Co-first authors)

Ahmad, I. M., Abdalla, M. Y., Aykin-Burns, N., Simons, A. L., Oberley, L. W., Domann, F. E. and Spitz, D. R. (2008) 2-Deoxyglucose combined with wild-type p53 overexpression enhances cytotoxicity in human prostate cancer cells via oxidative stress. Free Radic Biol Med 44, 826-834

Coleman, M. C., Asbury, C. R., Daniels, D., Du, J., Aykin-Burns, N., Smith, B. J., Li, L., Spitz, D. R. and Cullen, J. J. (2008) 2-deoxy-D-glucose causes cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, and radiosensitization in pancreatic cancer. Free Radic Biol Med 44, 322-331

Erickson, J. R., Joiner, M. L., Guan, X., Kutschke, W., Yang, J., Oddis, C. V., Bartlett, R. K., Lowe, J. S., O'Donnell, S. E., Aykin-Burns, N., Zimmerman, M. C., Zimmerman, K., Ham, A. J., Weiss, R. M., Spitz, D. R., Shea, M. A., Colbran, R. J., Mohler, P. J. and Anderson, M. E. (2008) A dynamic pathway for calcium-independent activation of CaMKII by methionine oxidation. Cell 133, 462-474

Jacobs, K. M., Pennington, J. D., Bisht, K. S., Aykin-Burns, N., Kim, H. S., Mishra, M., Sun, L., Nguyen, P., Ahn, B. H., Leclerc, J., Deng, C. X., Spitz, D. R. and Gius, D. (2008) SIRT3 interacts with the daf-16 homolog FOXO3a in the mitochondria, as well as increases FOXO3a dependent gene expression. Int J Biol Sci 4, 291-299

Weydert, C. J., Zhang, Y., Sun, W., Waugh, T. A., Teoh, M. L., Andringa, K. K., Aykin-Burns, N., Spitz, D. R., Smith, B. J. and Oberley, L. W. (2008) Increased oxidative stress created by adenoviral MnSOD or CuZnSOD plus BCNU (1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea) inhibits breast cancer cell growth. Free Radic Biol Med 44, 856-867

Aykin-Burns, N., Ahmad, I. M., Zhu, Y., Oberley, L. and Spitz, D. R. (2008) Increased levels of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide mediate the differential susceptibility of cancer cells vs. normal cells to glucose deprivation. Biochem J (in press)

Nyunoya, T, Monick, M.M., Klingelhutz, A.L., Glaser, H., Cagley, J.R., Brown, C.O., Matsumoto, E., Aykin-Burns, N., Spitz, D. R., Oshima, J. and Hunninghake, G.W. (2008) Cigarette smoke induces cellular senescence via Werner’s syndrome protein downregulation. Am J Respir Crit Care Med (in press)

Mattson, D.M., Ahmad, I.M., Dayal, D., Parsons, A.D., Aykin-Burns, N., Li, L., Orcutt, K.P., Spitz, D.R., Dornfeld, K.J., Simons, A.L. (2008). Cisplatin combined with zidovudine enhances cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in human head and neck cancer cells via a thiol-dependent mechanism. Free Radic Biol Med (in press)