Iva Tolić: biophysicist

Iva Tolić is a  Croatian   biophysicist , known for her work on the  microtubule  cytoskeleton and associated  motor proteins.

Iva Tolić was born in Zagreb in 1974. She was doctorate in 2002 at the University of Zagreb. She worked at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen and at the University of Florence. Since 2004, she was the head of the research group at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, and since 2014 she is a Senior Research Group Leader and a scientific consultant at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, Croatia. She is married and she is the mother of two children.

She was awarded several awards including Lieben Prize (2017), National Science Award of the Republic of Croatia (2016), Croatian Women of Influence Award (2016), Special award of the Ruđer Bošković Institute for outstanding contribution to the scientific excellence and international recognition of the Institute (2015), European Biophysics Societies Association Young Investigators' Medal and Prize (2015), Investigator of the Year, European Life Science Award (2014).

Tolić, with his scientific work, significantly contributed to the understanding of the process of cell division in the human body. In her research, she has described for the first time hitherto unknown factors that play an important role in the cell division.

She has been able to detect a new type of microtubule that, like bridges, links protein complexes on chromosomes and creates forces separating chromosomes from the mother's cell into two daughter cells.

This research could be important in detecting new therapies for cancer-induced errors when regulating cell division.

• Student: Martina Maras
• Mentor: Marina Mirković
• School: Tehnička škola
• City and country: Požega, Croatia