News & Events

From 3 August to 28 August, Dominik Škabić, a student at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb, is completing a student internship during which he is working on the development and improvement of the group’s website and the maintenance of its database.

As part of a student internship, Ilenia Nimš and Rene Radaković, students from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Drug Development at the University of Rijeka, spent two weeks at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in the Bakarić Group. Under the supervision of PhD student Vedrana Krajnović, they prepared model membranes of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and investigated their thermotropic properties.

Dr. Danijela Bakarić gave a lecture entitled "Temperature-induced denaturation of bovine serum albumin: reconciling the responses obtained by different experimental techniques" at the 20th Central and Eastern European Proteomic Conference in Zagreb, Croatia.

Student Nikolina Groznica defended her diploma thesis "The influence of cationic hydrophobic peptides on the thermotropic properties of neutral and anionic lipid membranes", which was created under the direct supervision of Dr. Lea Pašalić and the mentorship of Dr. Danijela Bakarić, on 29. 04. 2026 Congratulations to Nikolina on successfully defending her thesis!

On 24/04/2026 Petra Maleš defended her thesis titled "Physicochemical properties of myelin model lipid membranes under demyelination conditions" thereby gaining the academic title of PhD. Congratulations to Petra from the entire team!

On 10/12/2025 Lea Pašalić defended her thesis titled "Adsorption of cationic-hydrophobic peptides on model eukaryotic and prokaryotic lipid membranes" thereby gaining the academic title of PhD. Congratulations to Lea from the entire team!

PhD student Lea Pašalić participated in the 9th Mini Symposium of Medicinal Chemistry organized by the Croatian Chemical Society on December 4th 2025 in Zagreb. She held a lecture titled "Charge-hydrophobicity balance as a key modulator of peptide-membrane interactions for therapeutic applications".

As a part of the bilateral project COGITO, Dr Danijela Bakarić visited the Institute of Molecules and Materials of Le Mans, University of Le Mans, France, from 2. to 4. 11. 2025. She held a lecture titled "Improving the Action of Contemporary Antibiotics: Short Cationic Hydrophobic Peptides and Gold Nanoparticles and their Interaction with Model Eukaryotic and Prokaryotic Membranes". Together with the collaborator Prof Marc Lamy de la Chapelle, she discussed the continuation

PhD student Vedrana Krajnović has won a scholarship of RBI and the Embassy of the Republic of France for a one-month stay at the Institute of Molecules and Materials of Le Mans, University of Le Mans, France. From 27.10 to 23.11.2025, she is staying in the group of Prof Marc Lamy de la Chapelle, and she is working on the preparation of gold nanoparticles coated with the peptide anoplin, which she will characterize using spectroscopic and microscopic techniques.

Dr Bakarić attended the 3ʳᵈ International Conference on Chemo and BioInformatics ICCABIKG 2025 in Kragujevac (Serbia) which was held from 24. to 26. 9. 2025. She held a lecture titled "Modulation of thermotropic properties of cholesterol-free model myelin membranes by myelin basic protein".

Dr Barbara Pem, a postdoctoral researcher at LEB, held an informative lecture at the Supramolecular Chemistry Workshop on 25.09.2025. at the Faculty of Science in Zagreb. The lecture was titled: "Molecular dynamics: a tool for computational research of (supra)molecular systems".

Within the scope of the Croatian-French bilateral programme COGITO, Prof Marc Lamy de la Chapelle and Dr Matthieu Edely from Le Mans University visited the Laboratory for Engineering of Biomembranes. During the visit, that took place from 10th to 11th of July, they participated in a project meeting and Prof Lamy de la Chapelle held a lecture titled „Detection, identification and structural study of biomolecules by Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy”.

Our PhD student Petra Maleš was awarded the prestigious fellowship "For women in science" (L'Oreal-UNESCO). Follow this link to read more: https://www.irb.hr/eng/News/Petra-Males-Receives-Prestigious-For-Women-in-Science-Fellowship

The project titled "New approach to the structural characterization of drug delivery systems" (NoStruDos) has started. The project was funded by NPOO and led by Dr Danijela Bakarić. The project funding was used to employ Ramona Petko, mag. appl. chem. and to purchase a refractometer with temperature control capabilities.

The project proposal titled "The influence of nanoparticles on the properties and arrangement of lipid bilayers: A first step in understanding the targeted delivery of theranostic vehicles" was chosen to receive joint Croatian-French funding within the bilateral project scheme. The project leaders are Dr Danijela Bakarić and Prof Marc Lamy de la Chapelle (University Le Mans, Le Mans, France).

Dr Danijela Bakarić was approved for funding of the project proposal within the programme GD-2023 (call ID GD1-25). The project is titled "Turbidimetric determination of giant unilamellar vesicle morphology in solutions of different tonicities".

As a part of the DOK-NPOO-2023-10 call from the Croatian Science Foundation, Dr Danijeli Bakarić recieved funding to employ a new PhD student, Vedrana Krajnović, mag. appl. chem. Welcome to the group!

On 20.12.2024., Dr Dražen Petrov traveled to RBI to attend a meeting for the Austrian-Croatian bilateral project "Changes in asymmetry of lipid bilayers due to the adsorption of hydrophobic cationic peptides" (OeAD-MZOM). The meeting included the discussions on the research completed so far and the plans for continuation.

Through the funding assigned from the Program agreement of RBI and The Mininstry of science and education, Dr Karolina Chrabaszcz from the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Krakow (Poland) came to RBI for a one-month research stay. During her stay, Karolina learned the preparation and characterization of model membranes of healthy and tumor cells in the presence of cannabidiol, which helped in understanding of the data from her home institution. She taught her hosts about the a

As a part of the German-Croatian bilateral project "Myelin protein impact on membrane phase state, morphology and structure" (DAAD-MZO), PhD student Matilde Accorsi from the Max Planck Institute in Potsdam, Germany visited RBI and presented her research in a lecture titled rane phase state, morphology and structure" doktorandica Matilde Accorsi posjetila je IRB i prezentirala svoja istraživanja na kolokviju naslova "Reconciling past and future research: a study on calcium as