Vladana Vukojevic

Associate Professor of Biochemistry

My research interest lies in understanding self-organization in chemical and biological systems. Self-organization is a phenomenon that is inherent to living organisms and can be observed at all levels of their organization, from the cellular, tissue, organ, organism to the, supra individual, i.e. societal level. Self-organization also occurs in inanimate chemical and biochemical reaction systems in vitro when they proceed under conditions far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Self-organization in biochemical reaction systems arises via molecular motion and chemical interactions. Through reaction-diffusion processes interconnected networks of interactions are formed through which some molecules acquire the possibility to self-regulate their own concentration, i.e. affect their own production through autocatalysis/autoinhibition feedback loops. In such complex systems collective dynamical behaviour can emerge that is characteristic of the system as a whole and cannot be predicted, not even in principle, by studying in isolation the individual chemical/biochemical pathways that constitute the system, thus necessitating non-destructive studies of reaction-diffusion processes in complex reaction mixtures and in live cells. In my research, I use experimental and theoretical approaches. To quantitatively and non-destructively characterize the kinetics of fast dynamical processes in inanimate chemical systems or in live cells/tissue ex vivo, I use and further develop fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) methods. To understand how reaction-diffusion processes are integrated to yield a coherent response at the system/organism level, I am using mathematical modelling, numerical simulations and approaches from dynamical systems theory.

As an educator, I aim to significantly contribute to the advancement of individually tailored doctoral education at KI and its internationalization. By teaching advanced analytical methods, I enable PhD students to conduct ambitious and innovative research that pushes the frontiers of knowledge and prepares them to address complex global challenges in their respective fields using these experimental techniques.

• I have designed and teach at KI the doctoral course "Functional Fluorescence Microscopy Imaging in Biomedical Research", which has been running since 2010.
• I have been engaged as an Invited Lecturer at the Hokkaido Summer Institute since its inception in 2016. This program brings together world leading researchers with proven educational and research records to provide educational courses in cooperation with faculty members from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.
• I am a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Physical Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Serbia since 2011.
• I support course organizers within the doctoral program Allergy, Immunology and Inflammation (Aii) to further improve their educational practices by implementing pedagogical approaches and effectively designing their courses using the long-distance teaching and learning platform Canvas to develop a student-centred didactic environment that facilitates learning.