Jaroslava Miksovska

Jaroslava Miksovska received her PhD in 1998 for time-resolved spectroscopic studies of electron and proton transfer in the photosynthetic reaction centers of Rhodobacter capsulatus under the supervision of Prof. Pierre Sebban at Centre de Genetique Moleculair, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette. After postdoctoral work in the group of Prof. Randy Larsen at University of Hawaii and then at University of South Florida, she took a position as Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department, Marshall University. Since August 2007 she is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida International University.

Miksovska Biophysics Research Laboratory website

Research Areas

Her research interests focus on the application of photoacoustic calorimetry and photothermal beam deflection to investigate variety of chemical and biochemical processes including conformational dynamics associated with ligand binding hemeproteins, conformational changes associated with Ca2+ binding to calcium binding proteins and, protein folding in reverse micelles.

Project 1: Downstream Regulatory Element Antagonist Modulator is a neuronal calcium sensor that regulates vital processes including potassium voltage channel kinetics, DNA transcription and calcium homeostasis. Our research effort focuses on understanding of how calcium/magnesium association to DREAM controls DREAM affinity to other bio-macromolecules such as DNA and presenilin and what is the role of small hydrophobic molecules in this process. Students working on this multi-disciplinary project will learn biochemical techniques (protein isolation and purification), biophysical techniques (fluorescence studies, ITC, CD), experimental data analysis approaches and basic computational techniques (homology modeling, protein docking).

Project 2: Hexa-coordinate globins neuroglobin and cytoglobin represent a new sub-family of vertebrate globins that are involved in tissue protection under condition of stress and hypoxia. Despite the fact that the physiological role of these proteins is relatively well understood, the molecular basis of their protective function reminds unclear. In our group we focus on understanding the protein structure/function/dynamic relationship of vertebrate hexa-coordinate proteins. Students working on this project will received training in protein purification an isolation, characterization heme proteins interaction with ligands using steady-state absorption spectroscopy, protein stability measurements, and basic of photothermal techniques.

Recent Publications/Abstracts with Undergraduate Coauthors (*)

• Gonzalez WG, Arango AS*, Miksovska J. Amphiphilic Residues 29-44 of DREAM N-Termini Mediate Calmodulin:DREAM Complex Formation. Biochemistry (2015) 54:4391-403.
• Walter G. Gonzalez, Andres S. Arango*, and Jaroslava Miksovska Interaction-based analysis of the DREAM-Calmodulin complex 66th Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, October 16th - 19th, 2014
• Adrian Rodriquez* and Jaroslava Miksovska Heme pocket characterization of neuroglobin using fluorescence probes Florida Undergraduate Research Conference, February 2014

Education

• BS Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
• MS Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
• PhD University Paris XI - Orsay, France