Ivan Pokrovac Email & Phone Number

Ivan Pokrovac is a PhD candidate | Evolutionary biology | Bioinformatician at Ruđer Bošković Institute.

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  Doctoral Researcher

  Ruđer Bošković Institute

  Aug 2020 - Present - Zagreb, Croatia

  I contributed to a project titled "Environmentally Induced Copy Number Variation in Mouse Sperm Cells," which focused on studying how environmental factors influence copy number variants (CNVs) in mouse genomes. The project employed the C57BL/6 mouse strain, which we subjected to various environmental challenges such as nutritional deprivation, ethanol exposure, and heavy metals. Our goal was to determine the impact of these factors on CNV mutation rates and genomic stability.Key achievements:Developed a protocol for isolation of high molecular weight DNA (HMW DNA) for optical genome mapping.Employed high-throughput methods like optical genome mapping and created a custom algorithm to calculate telomere length.Developed a novel protocol for spermatogonia isolation using magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) and applied advanced techniques like flow cytometry and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.Led the husbandry and maintenance of laboratory mice used in the experiments.Additionally, I worked on a parallel project analyzing CNVs linked to cave adaptation in the Mexican tetra (Astyanax mexicanus), where I:Developed a fully reproducible analysis pipeline using Snakemake for next-generation sequencing (NGS) data.Applied machine learning methods like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering (HAC) to identify CNVs related to cave colonization.Visualized and presented results using Python-based data analysis tools.

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  University Of Zagreb/Sveuciliste U Zagrebu

  Pharmacy