petra kukaNJa

POSTDOCTORAL SCIENTIST

Petra was born and raised in Slovenia, where she earned a Bachelor's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Ljubljana. During her undergraduate studies, she developed a strong interest in neuroscience and molecular biology, particularly in the regulatory mechanisms governing gene expression. Her passion for this area earned her funding for two research internships, which she completed at the University of Helsinki in Finland and the University of California, San Francisco.

While pursuing her Master's degree at Uppsala University in Sweden, Petra became fascinated by glial cells, which inspired her to undertake a PhD at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. In the Castelo-Branco lab, Petra focused on elucidating the transcriptional diversity of oligodendroglia in both health and multiple sclerosis.

In the Liddelow lab, Petra will continue her exploration of glial biology, with a focus on reactive astrocytes. She is particularly interested in the mechanisms governing astrocyte reactivity, their cellular interactions, and their roles in development and neurodegeneration.

KEY PUBLICATIONS

(* = equal contribution)

  1. Kukanja P*, Langseth CM*, Rubio Rodríguez-Kirby LA, Agirre E, Zheng C, Raman A, Yokota C, Avenel C, Tiklová K, Guerreiro-Cacais AO, Olsson T, Hilscher MM, Nilsson M, Castelo-Branco G (2024). Cellular architecture of evolving neuroinflammatory lesions and multiple sclerosis pathology. Cell 187(8):1990-2009. PMID: 38513664.

  2. Zhang D*, Deng Y*, Kukanja P, Agirre E, Bartosovic M, Dong M, Ma C, Ma S, Su G, Bao S, Liu Y, Xiao Y, Rosoklija GB, Dwork AJ, Mann JJ, Leong KW, Boldrini M, Wang L, Haeussler M, Raphael BJ, Kluger Y, Castelo-Branco G, Fan R (2023) Spatial epigenome–transcriptome co-profiling of mammalian tissues. Nature 616(7955):113-122. PMID: 36922587.

  3. Floriddia EM, Lourenço T, Zhang S, van Bruggen D, Hilscher MM, Kukanja P, Gonçalves dos Santos JP, Altınkök M, Yokota C, Llorens-Bobadilla E, Mulinyawe SB, Grãos M, Sun LO, Frisén J, Nilsson M, Castelo-Branco G (2020) Distinct oligodendrocyte populations have spatial preference and different responses to spinal cord injury. Nat Commun 17;11(1):5860. PMID: 33203872.