Dr Katarina Harasimov

Katarina earned both her Master's and PhD degrees from the International Max Planck Research School for Molecular Biology at the University of Göttingen, Germany. During her doctoral research, Katarina uncovered novel mechanisms involved in chromosome segregation in mammalian oocytes, as well as new factors contributing to the age-related decline in female fertility.

Presently, Katarina is pursuing her research at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. Her research is generously supported by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). Through her work, she aspires to advance the field of cell and developmental biology, aiming to shed light on crucial aspects of early life and reproductive health in mammals.

Publications

1. Harasimov, K., and Schuh, M. (2018). Actin Disassembly: How to Contract without Motors? Curr Biol 28, R275–R277.
2. Cheng, S., Altmeppen, G., So, C., Welp, L.M., Penir, S., Ruhwedel, T., Menelaou, K., Harasimov, K., Stützer, A., Blayney, M., et al. (2022). Mammalian oocytes store mRNAs in a mitochondria-associated membraneless compartment. Science 378, eabq4835.
3. So, C., Menelaou, K., Uraji, J., Harasimov, K., Steyer, A.M., Seres, K.B., Bucevičius, J., Lukinavičius, G., Möbius, W., Sibold, C., et al. (2022). Mechanism of spindle pole organization and instability in human oocytes. Science 375, eabj3944.
4. Harasimov, K., Uraji, J., Mönnich, E.U., Holubcová, Z., Elder, K., Blayney, M., and Schuh, M. (2023). Actin-driven chromosome clustering facilitates fast and complete chromosome capture in mammalian oocytes. Nature Cell Biology 25, 439–452.
5. Harasimov, K., Gorry, R.L., Welp, L.M., Penir, S.M., Horokhovskyi, Y., Cheng, S., Takaoka, K., Stützer, A., Frombach, A.-S., Tavares, A.L.T., et al. (2024). The maintenance of oocytes in the mammalian ovary involves extreme protein longevity. Nat. Cell Biol., 1–15.