Prof. Aleksandra Trifunovic University of Cologne, Germany

Aleksandra Trifunovic graduated in Biology at the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. She obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the same University. Following her PhD she did postdoctoral work with Nils-Göran Larsson at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden where she studied mechanisms of mitochondrial gene expression with a specific... read morefocus on the role of mitochondrial DNA mutation in ageing. In 2009 she joined the Cologne Excellence Center for Cellular Stress Responses in Ageing-Associated Diseases at the University of Cologne, where she became a Professor in Mitochondrial Disease and Ageing in 2014. Her main research interest is to understand the role of stress responses arising from mitochondrial respiratory chain dysfunction, with special focus on mitochondrial matrix proteases ClpXP and Lonp1. Her lab developed multiple mouse models for studying mitochondrial dysfunction in vivo that are shared with the rest of the community.