Fon Tacer Klementina

Klementina Fon Tacer is an assistant professor of reproductive biology and oncology at TTU SVM, working in the field of comparative cancer biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and germ cell differentiation. Klementina received her D.V.M. from the Veterinary Faculty and Ph.D. from the Faculty of Medicine, both at the University of Ljubljana. After postdoctoral research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX and St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, she joined a newly established School of Veterinary Medicine at TTU. Prior to returning to the USA, Klementina spent 2 years at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Ljubljana teaching animal nutrition and studying metabolism and cancer. Klementina is a recent CPRIT Scholar Award winner from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas.

Research projects: The overarching aim of Dr. Fon Tacer’s research is to uncover novel mechanisms that have evolved to protect mammalian germ cells against stress, discover how and why they were co-opted in cancer, and ultimately apply the insights learned for the advancement of cancer treatment, fertility preservation, and conservation of endangered species. To sddress these questions her group employs a multidisciplinary approach, combining techniques from classical molecular biology and biochemistry to single-cell technology, genome editing, omics analysis, mouse physiology and biostatistics, With an interdiscipliniray program and comparative approach. Dr. Fon Tacer plans to interconnect veterinry and human medicine to ultimately benefit both, animal and human wellbeing and health. Prospective students can work in the area of human or animal cancer biology, germ cell biology, and reproduction.