Tate group researcher Dr Jana Volaric has been awarded the Rubicon Fellowship from the Dutch Research Council (NWO)
Jana was awarded the prestigious Rubicon Fellowship to investigate the dynamic nature of S-acylation of oncogenic proteins with novel chemical biology tools.
Jana completed her BSc in chemistry in her hometown at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, where she worked in a physical-organic chemistry lab observing dimerization of nitroso compounds. She then moved to the Netherlands where she obtained an MSc in organic chemistry at the University of Groningen. During her MSc she synthesized molecular motor-based catalysts for achieving dual stereocontrol of the Henry reaction. During her masters degree, she spent six months at Harvard Medical School in the group of Prof. Hidde Ploegh, where she worked on observing internalization of recombinant influenza A virus with the help of self-quenching fluorescent peptide probes.
Upon completing her MSc, Jana returned to Groningen to pursue her PhD in the field of photopharmacology under the guidance of Prof. Ben Feringa. During her PhD she developed and synthesized water-soluble azobenzene photoswitches, including bis-azobenzene crosslinkers and fully visible light-responsive systems. The photoswitches were applied to photocontrol nanopore assembly of a small pore-forming toxin, leading to light responsive cancer cell destruction. Upon completing her PhD, Jana joined the Tate group and the zDHHC team to use chemical biology approaches to study protein S-acylation.
Congratulations Jana!
Article text (excluding photos or graphics) © Imperial College London.
Photos and graphics subject to third party copyright used with permission or © Imperial College London.
Reporter
Edward Bartlett
Department of Chemistry
