Undergraduate Studies, University of Belgrade, 1999
Ph.D., Iowa State University, 2004
Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University, 2006-2011
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Virginia Tech, 2011-present

Honors:

NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship (Genomics and Proteomics), 2007-08.
Young Protein Scientist Talk, 21^st Annual Symposium of The Protein Society, 2007.

Many fundamental yet complex biological functions are carried out by molecular machineries composed of proteins.  The existence of such machineries indicates that functional assemblies are an inherent property of proteins. My group has undertaken the challenge of exploiting a detailed physical understanding of protein sequence – structure – function relationships to engineer molecular devices that can potentially address current needs in medicine and energy.

To this end we are interested in utilizing the modular nature of repeat proteins for application in (1) bioimaging and biosensors, and (2) assembly of materials and scaffolds for applications in energy and catalysis, and drug delivery and tissue engineering.

Our work is highly interdisciplinary and students will receive training in several areas of chemistry, structural biology, and materials science.

Specific projects in the group include:

• Design of molecular recognition modules for imaging and sensing post-translational modifications of proteins
• Self-assembly of repeat-protein arrays
• Biotemplating of inorganic nanoparticles for energy and catalysis

1. Tijana Z. Grove, Chinedum O. Osuji, Jason D. Forster, Eric R. Dufresne, Lynne Regan; “Stimuli-Responsive Smart Gels Realized via Modular Protein Design” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 14024-14026.
2. Tijana Z. Grove, Michael Hands, Lynne Regan; “Creating novel proteins by combining design and selection” Protein Eng. Des. Sel. 2010, 23, 449-55.
3. Tijana Z. Grove, Aitziber L. Cortajarena, Lynne Regan; “Ligand binding by repeat proteins: natural and designed” Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol. 2008, 18, 507-15.