Milena Popovic
Research Scientist/BMSIS
Contents
Branch: Exobiology Branch (STX)
Education
PhD, Florida State University
BSc, University of Tampa
Research Interests
Origin and early evolution of life
In vitro evolution
Compartmentalization in early evolution
Developing scientific instruments for life detection
Publications
Ditzler, M. A., Popović, M., Zajkowski, T., From building blocks to cells, New Frontiers in Astrobiology, 111-133, Elsevier, Cambridge, MA, (2022), Thombre, R. and Vaishampayan, P., eds.
Ditzler, M. A., Rios, AC, Nuevo, M., Popović, M., Mancinelli, R., Broddrick, J.T., Summers, D., Rothschild, L. J. and Weber, A. L., (2021). Beyond targeted searches: the need for system-level approaches to understanding the connection between astrochemistry and the emergence of life [White paper], Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 53(4), p269 DOI: 103847/25c2cfeb7a06f84d
Popović, M., Ellingson, A., Chu, T., Wei, C., Pohorille, A., Ditzler, M. A., In vitro selections with RNAs of variable length converge on a robust catalytic core, NAR, 2021, 29, 674-683, DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkaa1238
Plebanek, A., Larnerd, C., Popović, M., Wei, C., Pohorille, A., Ditzler, M., Big on change, small on innovation: evolutionary consequences of RNA sequence duplication, J Mol Evol, 2019, 240-253, DOI: 10.1007/s00239-019-09906-3
Stephenson, J.D., Popović, M., and Ditzler, M.A., Evolution of ribozymes in the presence of a mineral surface, RNA, 2016, 22, 1893-1901, DOI/10.1261/rna.057703.116
Popović, M., Fliss P.S., Ditzler, M.A., In vitro evolution of distinct self-cleaving ribozymes in diverse environments, Nucleic Acids Research, 2015, DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkv648