Begüm Topçuoğlu

Post-doctoral Research Fellow since 2018

Research areas

  • Intestinal Microbiome
  • Colorectal Cancer

Education

  • B.S.: Sabanci University (2011)
  • Ph.D.: University of Massachusetts (2018)
Begüm Topçuoğlu

Background

Previously, I studied the physiology of (hyper)thermophiles in hot environments such as hydrothermal vents. My work focused on how interspecies cooperation among hyperthermophilic archaea effects subseafloor life. I’m interested in understanding the changes in microbial community and physiology in an ecosystem upon perturbations and stress inducing conditions. My work in the Schloss Lab focuses on the role of host microbiome on colorectal cancer progression.

Papers from time in Schloss lab

  1. Sze MA, Topçuoğlu BD, Lesniak NA, IV Ruffin MT, Schloss PD. 2019. Fecal short-chain fatty acids are not predictive of colonic tumor status and cannot be predicted based on bacterial community structure. mBio. 10: e01454-19. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01454-19.
  2. Topçuoğlu BD, Lesniak NA, Ruffin MT IV, Wiens J, Schloss PD. 2020. Effective application of machine learning to microbiome-based classification problems. mBio. 11: 1-13. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.00434-20.
  3. Hagan AK, Topçuoğlu BD, Gregory ME, Barton HA, Schloss PD. 2020. Women Are Underrepresented and Receive Differential Outcomes at ASM Journals: a Six-Year Retrospective Analysis. mBio. 11: e01680-20. DOI: 10.1128/mBio.01680-20.
  4. Hagan AK, Lesniak NA, Balunas MJ, Bishop L, Close WL, Doherty MD, Elmore AG, Flynn KJ, Hannigan GK, Koumpouras CC, Jenior ML, Kozik AJ, McBride K, Rifkin SB, Stough JMA, Sovacool KL, Sze MA, Tomkovich S, Topçuoğlu BD, Schloss PD. 2020. Ten simple rules to increase computational skills among biologists with Code Clubs. PLOS Computational Biology. 16: e1008119. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008119.
  5. Topçuoğlu BD, Lapp Z, Sovacool KL, Snitkin E, Wiens J, Schloss PD. 2021. mikropml: User-Friendly R Package for Supervised Machine Learning Pipelines. Journal of Open Source Software. 6: 3073. DOI: 10.21105/joss.03073.
  6. Armour CR, Topcuoglu BD, Garretto A, Schloss PD. 2022. A Goldilocks Principle for the Gut Microbiome: Taxonomic Resolution Matters for Microbiome-Based Classification of Colorectal Cancer. mBio. 13: e03161-21. DOI: 10.1128/mbio.03161-21.
  7. Armour CR, Sovacool KL, Close WL, Topcuoglu BD, Wiens J, Schloss PD. 2023. Machine learning classification by fitting amplicon sequences to existing OTUs. mSphere. 8: 00336-23. DOI: 10.1128/msphere.00336-23.