Dr. Maja Misirkić Marjanović

Maja Misirkić Marjanović successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled "Mechanisms of cytotoxic and cytoprotective action of fullerene (C60) nanoparticles" at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, in 2015. She had previously earned her Master in Molecular Biology and Physiology from the Faculty of Biology at the same university in 2005. Dr. Misirkić Marjanović's research significantly contributes to understanding the antitumor and immunomodulatory potential of nanoparticles. Her work focuses on investigating the mechanisms and impact of autophagy on the antitumor properties of newly synthesized compounds, neuronal and leukemic cell differentiation processes, and SARS-CoV-2 infection. She collaborated on writing a review paper on guidelines in autophagy investigation published in the scientific journal Autophagy. Her expertise led to invitation to contribute to the fourth version of these guidelines due to the importance of her previous research. These guidelines aid researchers in selecting appropriate methods for studying autophagy and its related processes, and interpreting their findings.

Dr. Misirkić Marjanović received the "Veselin Lučić" Endowment Award in 2022 for outstanding scientific achievements as a faculty member at the University of Belgrade. Additionally, a doctoral dissertation she supervised, authored by Dr. Miloš Mandić, won the "Ivan Đaja" award for the best dissertation in physiology. She also managed a work package "Optimized protocols for cell transfection and treatment" of Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia's special call for COVID-19 research January 2021-November 2022. From 2021 to 2023, she led project tasks focused on understanding the role and mechanisms of autophagy induction in HL-60 cell differentiation induced by PMA.

Dr. Misirkić Marjanović is a member of various scientific societies, including Serbian Society for Molecular Biology, Serbian Biological Society, Society for Neuroscience of Serbia, Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, Nordic Autophagy Society, and the Women in Autophagy network. She participated in the COST actions TRANSAUTOPHAGY and TRANSLACORE.