Jadranka Lončarek is a Croatian cell and molecular biologist researching the molecular mechanism of centrosome biogenesis and their function, with particular attention on numerical control of centrosome formation in non-transformed and cancerous human cells.

Education

Lončarek earned a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology at the Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. Her dissertation in 2002 was titled ''The expression of the urokinase plasminogen activator gene in bladder carcinoma cell lines''. Her doctoral advisor was Jasna Sorić. She completed postdoctoral research in the laboratory of at the Wadsworth Center, where she studied the mechanisms of

centriole In cell biology a centriole is a cylindrical organelle composed mainly of a protein called tubulin. Centrioles are found in most eukaryotic cells, but are not present in conifers (Pinophyta), flowering plants (angiosperms) and most fungi, and a ...

duplication and mitotic spindle formation.

Career and research

Lončarek joined the National Institutes of Health in 2011 as a Stadtman investigator at the National Cancer Institute. She studies the

centrosome cycle Centrosomes are the major microtubule organizing centers (MTOC) in mammalian cells. Failure of centrosome regulation can cause mistakes in chromosome segregation and is associated with aneuploidy. A centrosome is composed of two orthogonal cyli ...

in proliferating cells and is head of the Centrosome Biology Section of the Cancer Innovation Laboratory. Lončarek received tenure from NIH in 2020. Lončarek researches the molecular mechanism of centrosome biogenesis and their function. She studies the architecture and cellular processes associated with their activity. Lončarek aims to unravel the cellular regulatory pathways that control a centrosome number in normal and pathological conditions such as human tumors. Her laboratory uses

biochemical Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology an ...

and genetic approaches and combines them with conventional and

super resolution microscopy Super-resolution microscopy is a series of techniques in optical microscopy that allow such images to have resolutions higher than those imposed by the diffraction limit, which is due to the diffraction of light. Super-resolution imaging techni ...

and

electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lončarek, Jadranka Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) National Institutes of Health people 21st-century biologists 21st-century women scientists Croatian medical researchers Women medical researchers Croatian women scientists Croatian biologists 21st-century Croatian scientists Croatian emigrants to the United States Expatriate academics in the United States Cell biologists Women molecular biologists Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb alumni