I received my B.Sc. degree in Biology from the University of Zagreb in Croatia. I continued with graduate studies at the same University that led to a M.Sc. degree in Cell Biology and Ph.D. degree in Plant Molecular Biology. In 1992 I moved to Canada to work at the NRCC Plant Biotechnology Institute in Saskatoon, first as a research associate and then as a guest researcher funded by industrial partners. From 2005 to 2006 I worked as a research associate at the University of Missouri, Columbia, USA. In January 2006 I returned to Canada, to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver to carry out a project in Ljerka Kunst’s Laboratory in the Department of Botany.

My main research interests are in the area of seed lipid metabolism and genetic engineering. I am currently involved in the evaluation of target genes/proteins determining rate-limiting steps of seed oil biosynthesis and accumulation using reverse genetic approaches. Our goal is to manipulate carbon flux in the Brassicaceae seed to increase the amounts of oil and of target fatty acids for industrial applications.

Selected publications:

V. Katavic, G.K. Agrawal, M. Hajduch, S.L. Harris, J.J. Thelen (2006) Protein and lipid composition analysis of oil bodies from two Brassica napus cultivars. Proteomics 6: 4586-4598.

V. Katavic, D.L. Barton, M.E. Giblin, D.W. Reed, A. Kumar, D.C. Taylor (2004) Gaining insight into the role of serine 282 in B. napus FAE1 condensing enzyme. FEBS Letters 562: 118-124.

J-T Zou, V. Katavic, E.M. Giblin, D.L. Barton, S. L. McKenzie, W.A. Keller, D.C. Taylor (1997) Modification of seed oil content and acyl composition in Brassicaceae by expression of a yeast sn-2 acyltransferase gene. The Plant Cell 9: 909-923.

V. Katavic, D.W. Reed, D.C. Taylor, E.M. Giblin, D.L. Barton, J.T. Zou, S.L. McKenzie, P.S. Covello, L. Kunst (1995) Alteration of seed fatty acid composition by an ethylmethanesulfonate-induced mutation in Arabidopsis thaliana affecting diacylglycerol acyltransferase activity. Plant Physiol. 108: 399-409.