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 and reovirus. 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.

Profile

We build custom laser microscopes and apply Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy to follow in real time hundreds of influenza virions 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

BCHM	103b	Advanced Biochemistry: Cellular Information Transfer Mechanisms
QBIO	120b	Quantitative Biology Instrumentation Laboratory

Awards and Honors

Provost's Research Award (2017)

Scholarship

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