Prof. Dr. Kristina Djinovic-Carugo

Higher education

• 1995
  Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship (declined)
  
  

• 1995
  EMBO long-term postdoctoral fellowship
  
  

• 1992
  PhD in Chemistry, at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Supervisors: Prof. M. Bolognesi (Uni. Pavia, Italy) and Prof. L. Golic
  
  

• 1986 – 1989
  Master in Chemistry, at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia); majors: small-molecule crystallography, solid state physics, biophysics, statistical thermodynamics (Master diploma grade with distinction; 10/10)
  
  

• 1981 – 1986
  Diploma in Chemistry at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)
  
  

Appointments

• Since 2017
  Co-director (with R Konrat) of Christian Doppler Laboratory for High-Content Structural Biology and Biotechnology
  
  

• Since 2004
  Full Professor of Structural Biology, Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Austria
  
  

• Since 2009
  Head of Department of Structural and Computational Biology, Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Austria
  
  

• 2010 – 2016
  Director of Laura Bassi Center for Optimized Structural Studies
  
  

• 1999 – 2004
  Head of Structural Biology and Crystallography Unit, Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy
  
  

• 1997 – 1999
  Staff Scientist, Structural Biology Programme, EMBL-Heidelberg, Germany
  
  

• 1995 – 1997
  EMBO Post-Doctoral Fellow, Structural Biology Programme, EMBL-Heidelberg
  
  

• 1992 – 1995
  Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dept. Microbiol. and Genetics, University of Pavia, Italy
  
  

Supervision of Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows

• 2004 – 2016
  14 Postdocs / 20 PhD / 10 Master Students – Department of Structural and Computational Biology, MFPL, Univ. of Vienna, Austria
  
  

• 1992 – 2004
  4 Postdocs / 2 PhD / 2 Master Students – Structural Biology and Crystallography Unit, Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy
  
  

Teaching activities

•  
  University of Vienna, Austria: Teaching Macromolecular crystallography, Advanced macromolecular crystallography and Structural Biology I, Biophysical Methods for Biological Macromolecules for students of Molecular Biology and Chemistry (since study year 2004/2005 onwards). Coordinator of Seminar series Modern concepts in structural biology for students of Molecular Biology and Chemistry (since study year 2004/2005 onwards). Vice-Speaker of Doctoral College “Integrative Structural Biology” (since 2016 onwards). Participation in Seminar Series Dynamic Biochemistry for students of Molecular Biology at (since study year 2008/2009 onwards).
  
  

•  
  University of Ljubljana, Slovenia: Teaching Methods for Determining 3D Macromolecular Structure for students of Biochemistry (since study year 1998/99). Teaching Modern and Complementary Approaches in Structural Biology for students of Biochemistry (since study year 2013/2014). Mentoring numerous diploma, master and doctoral students in Vienna and Ljubljana.
  
  

• Grison, M., Merkel, U., Kostan, J., Djinović-Carugo, K., and Rief, M. (2017) alpha-Actinin/titin interaction: A dynamic and mechanically stable cluster of bonds in the muscle Z-disk. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114, 1015-1020

• Song, J. G., Kostan, J., Drepper, F., Knapp, B., de Almeida Ribeiro, E., Jr., Konarev, P. V., Grishkovskaya, I., Wiche, G., Gregor, M., Svergun, D. I., Warscheid, B., and Djinovic-Carugo, K. (2015) Structural Insights into Ca-Calmodulin Regulation of Plectin 1a-Integrin beta4 Interaction in Hemidesmosomes. Structure 23, 1-13

• Ribeiro, E. D., Jr., Pinotsis, N., Ghisleni, A., Salmazo, A., Konarev, P. V., Kostan, J., Sjoblom, B., Schreiner, C., Polyansky, A. A., Gkougkoulia, E. A., Holt, M. R., Aachmann, F. L., Zagrovic, B., Bordignon, E., Pirker, K. F., Svergun, D. I., Gautel, M., and Djinovic-Carugo, K. (2014) The Structure and Regulation of Human Muscle alpha-Actinin. Cell 6, 1447-1460

• Kostan, J., Salzer, U., Orlova, A., Toro, I., Hodnik, V., Senju, Y., Zou, J., Schreiner, C., Steiner, J., Merilainen, J., Nikki, M., Virtanen, I., Carugo, O., Rappsilber, J., Lappalainen, P., Lehto, V. P., Anderluh, G., Egelman, E. H., and Djinovic-Carugo, K. (2014) Direct interaction of actin filaments with F-BAR protein pacsin2. EMBO Rep 15, 1154-1162

• de Almeida Ribeiro, E., Jr., Beich-Frandsen, M., Konarev, P. V., Shang, W., Vecerek, B., Kontaxis, G., Hammerle, H., Peterlik, H., Svergun, D. I., Blasi, U., and Djinović-Carugo, K. (2012) Structural flexibility of RNA as molecular basis for Hfq chaperone function. Nucleic Acids Res 40, 8072-8084

• Galkin, V. E., Orlova, A., Salmazo, A., Djinović-Carugo, K., and Egelman, E. H. (2010) Opening of tandem calponin homology domains regulates their affinity for F-actin. Nat Struct Mol Biol 17, 614-616

• Sjoblom, B., Polentarutti, M., and Djinović-Carugo, K. (2009) Structural study of X-ray induced activation of carbonic anhydrase. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106, 10609-10613

• Wuerges, J., Lee, J. W., Yim, Y. I., Yim, H. S., Kang, S. O., and Djinović-Carugo, K. (2004) Crystal structure of nickel-containing superoxide dismutase reveals another type of active site. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 101, 8569-8574

• Djinović-Carugo, K., Young, P., Gautel, M., and Saraste, M. (1999) Structure of the alpha-actinin rod: molecular basis for cross-linking of actin filaments. Cell 98, 537-546

• Djinović-Carugo, K., Banuelos, S., and Saraste, M. (1997) Crystal structure of a calponin homology domain. Nat Struct Biol 4, 175-179

• Bordo, D., Djinovic, K., and Bolognesi, M. (1994) Conserved patterns in the Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase family. J Mol Biol 238, 366-386

• Djinović, K., Gatti, G., Coda, A., Antolini, L., Pelosi, G., Desideri, A., Falconi, M., Marmocchi, F., Rotilio, G., and Bolognesi, M. (1992) Crystal structure of yeast Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase. Crystallographic refinement at 2.5 A resolution. J Mol Biol 225, 791-809

• Structure, Function and Regulation of the Myofibrillar Z‐disc Interactome

• An integrated approach to the muscle Z‐disk: from atomic structure to human disease

• Vice-coordinator of PhD Programme Integrative Structural Biology, since 2016

Institutional Responsibilities

• Elected EMBO member, 2016

• Member of appointment committee for Scientific Director of MFPL, Univ. of Vienna, Austria, 2015

• Member of User Committee of the "Protein Technology Facilities" at the Vienna Biocenter Campus Facility (VBCF), since 2011

• Head of Department for Structural and Computational Biology, Univ. of Vienna, Austria, since 2009

• Member of habilitation committees (3x head of committee) Univ. of Vienna, Austria, since 2004

• Member of appointment committees (2x head of committee) or reviewer for selection of new professors at the Univ. of Vienna and Univ. of Graz, Austria, since 2004

Commissions of Trust

• Member of International Advisory Board of Malopolska Center of Biotechnology, Krakow, Poland, since 2017

• Member of Scientific Advisory Board of the Czech Infrastructure for Integrative Structural Biology (CIISB), since 2016

• Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Neutrons and Synchrotron Radiation (NESY), since 2016

• Member of Scientific Advisory Board of Max IV Swedish Synchrotron Facility, since 2013

• Member of Project Evaluation Panel of EMBL Hamburg, 2012

• Member of Project Evaluation Panel of BioStruct-X, 2012 – 2016

• Member of Project Evaluation Panel of Max IV Swedish Synchrotron Facility, 2013 – 2015

• Elected member of Board of Austrian Science Fund (FWF), 2011 – 2014

• Member of Scientific Advisory board of French Synchrotron facility Soleil, 2012 – 2014

• Vice-speaker of PhD Programme Structure and Interaction of Biological Macromolecules, 2009 – 2013

• Member of ESRF Review Committee in area of Macromolecular Crystallography, 2008 – 2011

• Member of Scientific Advisory Council of the Centre of Excellence in Biocrystallography (CEB) at the University of Trieste, Italy, 2001 – 2004

Membership in Editorial Boards of International Journals

• Member of the Editorial Board of Journal Muscle Research and Cell Motility, since 2015

• Associated Editor of Science Frontiers Molecular Biosciences, since 2014

Reviewing activities for scientific journals

• J. Mol. Biol., Structure, Acta Cryst., J. Biol. Chem., FEBS Letters, BBA Proteins and Proteomics, Mol. Biol. Evol., Proteins, Protein Science, PLoS Biology, J. Muscle Res. Cell Motil.

Reviewing activities for foreign funding organizations

• DFG (Germany), ANR (France), EC-FP7, EC-FP6 (European Community), ARRS (Slovenia), NOW (The Netherlands), CIVR (Italy), AIRC (Italy), BBSRC (UK), MRC (UK), Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (PT), ERC (European Community), For PhD theses from foreign universities: Sweden, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Norway, EMBL, Finland

Organization of International Scientific Meetings

• Organizer (with K. Hradil and R. Miletich) of 32nd European Crystallographic Meeting, Vienna, Austria (expected >1000 participants), 2019

• Scientific organizer (with S.Kojic and M. Gautel) of Conference Structure and Dynamics of the Sarcomere, Belgrade, Serbia (70 participants), 2016

• Scientific organizer (with S. Galler) of European Muscle Conference, Salzburg, Austria (350 participants), 2014

• Scientific organizer (with M. Gautel, D. Fuerst, M. Wilmanns) of Conference Z-disk structure and dynamics, Hamburg, Germany (70 participants), 2013

• Scientific organizer of the 16th Heart of Europe Bio-crystallography Meeting (HEC-16), Attersee, Austria (120 participants), 2013

• Scientific organizer (with M. Weiss and S. McSweany) of 4th Winter School on Soft X-rays in Macromolecular Crystallography, Grenoble, France (50 participants), 2012

• Scientific organizer (with M. Weiss and U. Mueller) of Workshop on
Data Collection using synchrotron radiation (Berlin, Germany) (25-30 participants each), 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016

• Scientific organizer (together with M. Weiss and U. Mueller) of Winter School on Soft X-rays in Macromolecular Crystallography, Berlin, Germany (50 participants), 2009

• Scientific organizer (with Jacques Rohayem, Eric Snijder, Johan Neyts, Paul Tucker) of an EMBO workshop: 'RNA viruses: replication, evolution and drug design' – cosponsored by VIZIER, Vienna, Austria (90 participants), 2007

• Scientific organizer of the Winter School on Phasing with Soft X-rays, Seefeld, Austria (40 participants), 2006

• Co-organizer (with Manfred Weiss, EMBL-Hamburg, DE) of Workshop: Validation of Structures and Structure Determination Steps, Elettra, Trieste, Italy
(40 participants), 2003

• Co-organizer of the Winter School on Phasing with Soft X-rays, Bressanone/Brixen, Italy, 2003

• Co-organizer (with Keith Wilson, York, UK) of the Seventh International School on the Crystallography of Biological Macromolecules, Como, Italy (120 participants), 2003

• Organizer of Workshop: Challenges in Crystallography of Macromolecular Assemblies, Elettra, Trieste, Italy (40-50 participants), 2000

Most important invitations to present at academic conferences (64 invited oral presentations)

• Invited talk, 30th European Crystallographic Meeting, Basel, Switzerland, 2016

• Invited talk, Conference of Structure and Dynamics of the Sarcomere, Belgrade, Serbia, 2016

• Keynote Lecture CRYSTAL30, Society of Crystallographers of Australia and New Zealand, Hobart, Australia
, 2016

• Invited talk, 3rd Annual Congress of The European Society for Translational Medicine, Vienna, Austria, 2015

• Invited talk, American Crystallographic Association, Philadelphia, US, 2015

• Invited talk, International Union of Crystallography, Montreal, Canada, 2014

• Plenary lecture Chemistry towards Biology, Trieste, Italy, 2013

• Invited talk, European Muscle Conference, Rhodes, Greece, 2012

• Invited talk, 27th European Crystallographic Meeting, Bergen, Norway, 2012

• Invited talk, Joint Meeting of DFG Research Groups: Cross-striated Muscle in Health and Disease, Bonn, Germany, 2011

• Invited talk, 9th European Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference, Wroclaw, Poland, 2008

• Invited talk, 12. Membrane Skeleton Recent Advances and Future Research Directions, Zakopane, Poland, 2008

Fund Raising

• Since 1999 I have raised a total of 5.6 million Euros as PI with grants from funding agencies in Austria, Germany, Slovenia, United Kingdom and Europe (5th, 6th, 7th EU Framework Programmes) Coordinator of EU-FP5 RTD project “EXMAD” (2000-2004); Coordinator of EU-FP7 ITN “MUZIC”; Coordinator of Laura Bassi “Center for Optimised Structural Studies” (2010-2016); joint director of Christian Doppler Laboratory for High-Content Structural Biology and Biotechnology (since 2017); member of Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award (since 2016).

Soft Skills

• positive attitude, flexibility, communication AND listening

Other activities and achievements/family

• Married to Oliviero Carugo, structural bioinformatics expert

• one child (born 1994)

• Visual arts, literature; yoga, pilates

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