PI

Branko Stefanovic, Ph.D.

Dr. Stefanovic obtained his undergraduate degree in Medicinal Biochemistry from the University of Zagreb, Croatia and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from the Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. He continued his training as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bern, Switzerland and as a research assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In the last 15 years Dr. Stefanovic has had a research lab at the College of Medicine, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, where he is now a tenured professor. The research in Dr. Stefanovic’s lab has been on regulation of expression of type I collagen in fibrosis and on the role of LARP6 protein in translation of collagen mRNAs. In particular, his lab has characterized binding of LARP6 to collagen α1(I) and α2(I) mRNAs, as well as the signaling pathways leading to phosphorylation of LARP6, as crucial events in its activation. Development of high throughput screening methods for discovery of antifibrotic drugs started in Dr. Stefanovic’s lab several years ago and resulted in granting of two patents, in licensing of a compound to a start-up company and in application for the patent for collagen biosensor technology.