Tijana Ivanovic

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

Departments/Programs

Biochemistry
Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center

Degrees

Harvard University, Ph.D.
University of California, Los Angeles, B.S.

Expertise

Lab Webpage: http://www.tijanaivanovic.net

The Ivanovic lab investigates the molecular mechanisms of viral cell entry in the context of influenza virus, reovirus, Ebola virus-like particles, and SARS-CoV-2 virus-like particles. With the focus on fundamental aspects of enveloped-virus membrane fusion and nonenveloped-virus membrane penetration, we seek to understand adaptive changes in essential viral mechanisms that result in viral pandemics or resistance to antivirals. We apply and develop advanced biophysical and biochemical approaches and combine them with those of virology, molecular biology and cell biology. In the context of SARS-CoV-2, we are collaborating with researchers at the National Emerging Infectious Disease Laboratories (NEIDL) at BU aiming to identify best candidates for therapeutic antibodies.

Profile

We build custom laser microscopes and apply Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy to follow in real time hundreds of virus particles undergoing various molecular transitions that precede productive cell entry. Statistical analyses of individual-virion data – combined with structure-based mutagenesis and computer simulations that verify experimentally derived models – have led to a detailed molecular description capturing the sequence of events at the virus-target membrane interface that induce fusion of the participating membranes. By answering questions about what is fundamental about the viral fusion mechanism and what available options a virus has to change, it is becoming possible to think a step ahead of the virus to devise novel treatment approaches.

Courses Taught

BCBP	230b	Advanced Topics in Molecular Virology
BCHM	91g	Introduction to Research Practice
BCHM	103b	Advanced Biochemistry: Cellular Information Transfer Mechanisms
QBIO	120b	Quantitative Biology Instrumentation Laboratory

Awards and Honors

Selected through a nomination process as a speaker in the Future of Biophysics Burroughs Wellcome Fund Symposium at the Biophysical Society 65th Virtual Annual Meeting (2020 - 2021)

Provost's Research Award (2017)

Scholarship

Ivanovic, Tijana. "The shape of pleomorphic virions determines resistance to cell-entry pressure." Nature Microbiology (2021): https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00877-0.

Tian Li, Zhenyu Li, Meisui Liu, Erin E. Deans, Tijana Ivanovic. "Phenotypic Heterogeneity in Particle Size is a Viral Mechanism of Persistence." bioRxiv (2019).

Ivanovic, Tijana. "Distinct functional determinants of influenza hemagglutinin-mediated membrane fusion." eLife 4. (2015): e11009.