Tijana Ivanovic
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

Degrees
Harvard University, Ph.D.University of California, Los Angeles, B.S.
Expertise
Lab Webpage: http://www.tijanaivanovic.netThe 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.