Kristina Djinovic Carugo

Kristina Djinovic Carugo is a Full Professor of Structural Biology and Head of the Department of Structural and Computational Biology at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories, University of Vienna, Austria. She has held these positions since 2004 and 2009 respectively. Previously, she served as Head of the Structural Biology and Crystallography Unit at Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy (1999-2004), and as a Staff Scientist and EMBO Post-Doctoral Fellow at EMBL-Heidelberg, Germany.

Dr. Djinovic Carugo received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1992, with supervisors Prof. M. Bolognesi (University of Pavia, Italy) and Prof. L. Golic. She completed her Master in Chemistry (1986-1989) and Diploma in Chemistry (1981-1986) at the University of Ljubljana, with majors in small-molecule crystallography, solid state physics, biophysics, and statistical thermodynamics.

Her research focuses on the structural biology of the cytoskeleton, particularly the architecture and assembly of muscle Z-discs, which are critical for muscle function. Her lab investigates how Z-disc proteins assemble into highly ordered complexes capable of transmitting force along myofibrils, the role of post-translational modifications, and how disease mutations disrupt this assembly. Additional research lines include the structure-function analysis of metallo-enzymes involved in protection from chemical and oxidative damage.

Dr. Djinovic Carugo's recent publications reveal a strong trend toward understanding protein interactions in muscle sarcomeres using integrative structural biology approaches. Her work combines biochemical, molecular biophysics, and structural methods to dissect Z-disc structure at multiple resolution scales - from atomic to ultrastructural. A notable emerging theme is the role of intrinsically disordered proteins and phase separation in organizing the Z-disc architecture.

Her scientific awards and honors include:

• 1995 EMBO long-term postdoctoral fellowship
• 1995 Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship (declined)
• 2010 Awarded Laura Bassi Center of Expertise
• 2016 Elected EMBO member

Dr. Djinovic Carugo has supervised numerous PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, including current team members Philipp Galuska (PhD Student), Shankar Kundapura, Eva Kutejova, Georg Mlynek, and Peter Sok (PostDocs). She has secured significant research funding including the Christian Doppler Laboratory for High-Content Structural Biology and Biotechnology (2017-2024), the Austrian Science Fund FWF project on Liquid-liquid Phase Separation in Biology (2021-present), and the Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award on muscle Z-disk research (2016-2020).

She leads the Structural Biology of the Cytoskeleton research group at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories, which employs a multidisciplinary approach combining biochemical, molecular biophysics, and structural biology methods. Her lab has developed specialized techniques for protein crystallization, analysis of intrinsically disordered proteins, and integrative modeling of complex protein assemblies.