Successful NEWFELPRO stories: Antonija Jurak Begonja and thrombopoiesis
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Antonija Jurak Begonja, picture taken from the website.
Antonija Jurak Begonja is a NEWFELPRO's researcher from the reintegration scheme who has successfully completed the implementation of her two year long project entitled The Role of phosphatydilinositol 3-monophosphate and thrombopoiesis (CRPD) at the Department of Biotechnology of the University of Rijeka.
Her project aimed to reveal the role of different subcellular membranes in the formation of platelets. The platelets are necessary for wound healing and control of bleeding, and during the treatment of cancer, leukemia and organ transplants reduction of platelets is quite common, which puts patients at the risk of bleeding. Platelets are derived from large cells in the bone marrow, megakaryocytes, in a process called thrombopoiesis. The molecular mechanisms that regulate cytoplasmic changes of megakaryocytes into platelets are largely unknown. Researcher therefore used genetic fluorescent probes to spatially and temporally identify different subcellular membranes and how they contribute to the biogenesis of platelets. The research contributes to the understanding of the underlying molecular processes in formation of platelets which may lead to new therapeutic strategies for modulating the number of platelets in humans.
During NEWFELPRO project, A. J. Begonja published following papers:
- Grozovsky, R., Begonja, A.J., Liu, K., Visner, G., Hartwig, J.H., Falet, H. and Hoffmeister, K.M., 2015. The Ashwell-Morell receptor regulates hepatic thrombopoietin production via JAK2-STAT3 signaling. Nature medicine, 21(1), pp.47-54.
- Begonja, A.J., Pluthero, F.G., Suphamungmee, W., Giannini, S., Christensen, H., Leung, R., Lo, R.W., Nakamura, F., Lehman, W., Plomann, M. and Hoffmeister, K.M., 2015. FlnA binding to PACSIN2 F-BAR domain regulates membrane tubulation in megakaryocytes and platelets. Blood, 126(1), pp.80-88.
Also, she did presentations based on her NEWFELPRO project results at the following conferences:
- 2nd European Platelet Network Conference at Bischenberg (France) - Begonja A.J., Grozovsky R., Hoffmeister KM. Filamin A stabilizes thrombopoietin receptor surface expression and inhibits its degradation (2014.).
- Scientific forum about new development sin immunology and haematology– Begonja A.J.: All faces of platelets, HAZU, Rijeka (2014.).
- 56th American Society of Hematology Meeting at San Francisco, CA, USA- Grozovsky R, Begonja A.J., Hartwig J.H., Falet H., Hoffmeister K.M.- The Ashwell- Morell Receptor Regulates Hepatic Thrombopoietin production via jak2-stat3 signaling in vivoand in vitro (2014).
- 56th American Society of Hematology Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA. - Jonsson T., Pluthero F., Begonja A.J., Korman J., Demers M., Wagner D.D., Plomann M., Hartwig J.H., Kahr W.H., Falet H.- The F-bar protein pacsin2 regulates platelet intracellular membrane architecture and in vivo hemostatic functions. (2014.).
- 56th American Society of Hematology Meeting, San Francisco, CA, USA., Giannini S., Adelman M., Begonja A.J., Hoffmeister K.M., Postranslational modification in megakaryocytes regulates B1 integrin expression, migration and platelet production in vivo (2014).
- Gordin Research Conference - Cell Biology of Megakaryocytes and Platelets, Lucca (Italy).
- Bertović I., Banović M., Hartwig J.H., Jurak Begonja A., - Expression of P13P binding phox (px)domain inhibits megakaryocyte development into proplatelets. Biochemical society, Cambridge, VB (2015.).
- 3rd European Platelet Network (Euplan) Conference at Bad Homburg (Germany ) - Bertovic I, Banovic M, Paskvan P, Hartwig JH, Jurak Begonja A. - Phosphatidylinositol 3-monophosphate (PI3P) regulates proplatelet formation in vitro (2016.). – award for the best presentation
Antonija Jurak Begonja has been a CEEPUS stipendist for two times, the winner of the award of the American Hematologic Society in the year 2010, and her work based on NEWFELPRO project has been awarded at European Platelet Network conference in 2016. Work of dr. A J. Begonja has been on the cover of scientific journal „Blood“ for several times. She is also a professional member of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) and the Croatian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (HDBMB).
Congratulations!