Iva Tolić


Iva Marija Tolić is a Croatian biophysicist, known for her work on the microtubule cytoskeleton and associated motor proteins. She is currently Senior Research Group Leader and Professor of Biology at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, Croatia.

Education

Tolić completed her Diploma in Molecular Biology from the University of Zagreb, Croatia in 1996 and her Graduate Studies in Molecular Biology in the group of Prof. Nenad Trinajstić, Ruđer Bošković Institute and University of Zagreb, Croatia in 1999. Between 1999 and 2001, she completed part of her PhD work with Prof. Ning Wang, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, United States and was awarded her doctorate in Biology in 2002 by the University of Zagreb, Croatia.

Career

Upon obtaining her doctorate, Tolić did her first Post-doctoral training between 2001 and 2002 at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark working with Prof. Lene Oddershede and Prof. Kirstine Berg-Sorensen on the microrheology of cells. She then joined the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy, Florence, Italy for post-doctoral research with Prof. Francesco Pavone, working on lymphocyte movement and laser microsurgery on the mitotic spindle. Following her Post-doctoral training, Tolić was appointed as Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany in 2005 and was promoted to Senior Research Group Leader in 2010. In 2014, she moved to the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia, being appointed as Senior Research Group Leader and Professor of Biology.

Research

As independent investigator, Tolić has carried out pioneering research in the field of cell biology pertaining to the microtubule cytoskeleton and associated motor proteins, discovering: a novel mechanism of kinetochore capture during mitosis by pivoting of astral microtubules around the spindle pole, a mechanism of regulation of the motor protein cytoplasmic dynein by attachment to its anchor protein in fission yeast and most recently, 'Bridging fibers' that are non-kinetochore microtubules connecting sister k-fibers and thereby balancing forces in the spindle.
In addition, her research has demonstrated that fission yeast does not undergo replicative aging, contrary to existing theories on aging.

Personal life

Tolić's parents are the journalist and diplomat :hr:Benjamin Tolić|Benjamin Tolić and academic :hr:Dubravka Oraić-Tolić|Dubravka Oraić-Tolić. She married Nenad Brgić in 2014 and she is the mother of two children. She has stated publicly that she sees no conflict between religion and science.

Awards and Achievements

Tolić is a member of European Molecular Biology Organization, the Croatian Biophysical Society, the Croatian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Croatian Microscopy Society. In addition, she is Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the journal Science.