UCLA cancer researcher Stefan Petrovic, PhD

Stefan Petrovic, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Languages

English

Education

Fellowship

Structural Cell Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 2024

Degrees

PhD, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 2022
BS, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, 2014

Contact Information

Scientific Interests

Dr. Petrovic investigates the structure and function of tight junctions, the protein complexes that seal the space between neighboring cells in epithelial or endothelial tissues. In healthy tissues, this keeps cells cohesive and polarized. When the epithelial barrier is compromised, cells can lose cohesion, escape the primary tissue, and invade surrounding areas — a key step toward metastasis​. Beyond their structural role, tight junctions serve as dynamic signaling hubs, helping regulate cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. He is interested in how cancer cells exploit these junction-based signals to become more proliferative, mobile, and invasive. Lastly, the claudin family of tight junction proteins have emerged as crucial factors in gastric, ovarian, and endometrial cancers with their expression often profoundly altered during tumor development, implicating them as valuable biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets.

Highlighted Publications

Petrovic S, Samanta D,* Perriches T,* Bley CJ, Thierbach K, Brown B, Nie S, Mobbs GW, Stevens TA, Liu X, Tomaleri GP, Schaus L, Hoelz A (2022) Architecture of the linkerscaffold in the nuclear pore. Science. 376(6598):eabm9798. [featured on the COVER in Science issue dedicated to the structure of the nuclear pore complex and a PERSPECTIVE by Schwartz TU] PMCID: PMC9348906

Bley CJ,* Nie S,* Mobbs GW,* Petrovic S,* Gres AT,* Liu X,* Mukherjee S, Harvey S, Huber FM, Lin DH, Brown B, Tang AW, Rundlet EJ, Correia AR, Chen S, Regmi SG, Stevens TA, Jette CA, Dasso M, Patke A, Palazzo AF, Kossiakoff AA, Hoelz A (2022) Architecture of the cytoplasmic face of the nuclear pore. Science. 376(6598):eabm9129. [featured on the COVER in Science issue dedicated to the structure of the nuclear pore complex and a PERSPECTIVE by Schwartz TU] PMCID: PMC9348906

Petrovic S,* Mobbs GW,* Bley CJ,* Nie S,* Patke A, Hoelz A (2022) The structure and function of the nuclear pore complex. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 14(12):a041264 [Included as chapter in the The Endoplasmic Reticulum monograph edited by Ferro-Novick S, Rapoport TA, and Schekman RW]. PMCID: PMC9732903