News & Events

As a part of the Austrian-Croatian bilateral project "Changes in asymmetry of lipid bilayers due to the adsorption of hydrophobic cationic peptides" (OeAD-MZO), PhD students Petra Maleš and Lea Pašalić visited BOKU University (Vienna, Austria). During their one-week stay, they performed measurements of the interactions of hydrophobic cationic peptides by isothermal titration calorimetry and interferometry.

As a part of the German-Croatian bilateral project "The impact of myelin basic protein on the phase state, morphology and membrane structure" (DAAD-MZO), PhD student Tsu-Wang Sun visited RBI and presented his research in a lecture titled "Localized Dynamics in Membranes with Photoswitchable Lipid". Lecture abstract: Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) serve as cell-sized model systems extensively studied to mimic the behavior of natural cell membranes and synthetic cells. The l

As a part of the German-Croatian bilateral project "The impact of myelin basic protein on the phase state, morphology and membrane structure" (DAAD-MZO), PhD student Lea Pašalić spent three weeks at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany. She worked on the preparation and confocal microscopy of giant unilamellar liposomes interacting with peptides.

As a part of the German-Croatian bilateral project "The impact of myelin basic protein on the phase state, morphology and membrane structure" (DAAD-MZO), PhD student Petra Maleš spent three weeks at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany. She worked on confocal microscopy of model myelin membranes.

PhD students Tea Kuvek and Nadine Grundschober from the Institute of Molecular Modeling and Simulation, BOKU University, Vienna, Austria visited LEB as a part of the Austrian-Croatian bilateral project "Changes in the asymmetry of lipid bilayers due to the adsorption of hydrophobic cationic peptides". Tea Kuvek held a lecture titled "Exploring Molecular Dynamics Simulations". Lecture abstract: Molecular interactions are responsible for the properties and functions of systems

On 27.08.2024., Dr Danijela Bakarić held an invited lecture on the 10th Regional Biophysics Conference (RBC2024) in Split, Croatia. The lecture was titled "The revival of UV-Vis spectroscopy in lipid membrane research".

On 20.8.2024., Dr Rumiana Dimova visited RBI to meet with Dr Bakarić as a part of the German-Croatian bilateral project "The impact of myelin basic protein on the phase state, morphology and membrane structure" (DAAD-MZO). Dr Dimova also held a lecture titled "Membrane remodeling in artificial cells: When a membrane meets a drop". Lecture abstract: Cell membranes exhibit a large variation in curvature. While it is commonly perceived that this curvature is primarily driven by

PhD student Petra Maleš won the MOBDOK-2023 scholarship from the Croatian Science Foundation for a three-month research stay at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Graz, Austria. From April to July 2024, she was working on the structural analysis techniques for the characterization of model myelin membranes, under the supervision of Prof Georg Pabst.

On Tuesday May 28th 2024, PhD student Lea Pašalić held a lecture titled: 'The preparation of asymmetric lipid membranes and their characterization with fluorescence spectroscopy'. She presented the results of her research work at J. Heyrovsky Institute for Physical Chemistry, Prague, Czechia.

As a part of the bilateral CRO-AT project "Changes in lipid asymmetry double layer due to the adsorption of hydrophobic cationic peptides", the head of the CRO part of the project, Dr Danijela Bakarić, traveled to Vienna in order to hold a meeting with the head of the AT part of the project Dr Dražen Petrov. During the visit, she also held a lecture at the Institute of Molecular Modeling and Simulation (MMS) titled "Insight into the engineering and characterization of artific

Dr Barbara Pem started a one-year postdoctoral research on March 1, 2024. She joined the group of Prof Chris Oostenbrink at the Institute of Molecular Modeling and Simulation (MMS) in Vienna, Austria. The postdoctoral research is partially covered by the Joint Excellence in Science and Humanities (JESH) scholarship, which Barbara won with the project titled "Computational alchemy of model biological membranes: free energy calculations towards enhanced sampling of mixed lipid

PhD student Petra Males held a lecture at the XV. meeting of young chemical engineers 2024 on February 22, 2024 in Zagreb. In the lecture titled "The Significance of Cholesterol for Myelin Lipid Phases", Petra presented part of her research, which she conducts as part of her doctoral dissertation.

PhD student Lea Pasalic won the MOBDOK-2023 scholarship from the Croatian Science Foundation for a three-month stay at the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry in Prague, Czech Republic. From February to May 2024, under the leadership of Ph.D. Radek Šachl, Lea will advance her knowledge on microscopic techniques in characterizing the interactions between peptides and lipid membranes.

On December 19th 2023, project collaborator Dr Dražen Petrov from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria held a public lecture titled "Challenges and limitations of (bio)molecular modelling approaches". He proposed alternative approaches to tackle some of the issues faced when attempting to model biological systems, such as the treatment of electrostatic interactions and inadequate sampling bias.

On December 15th 2023, postdoctoral reseacher Barbara Pem held a public lecture organized by the Department of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry titled "Organization and interactions of phospholipid bilayers as biomembrane models". In this lecture she presented the results of her computational research conducted during her two-year post-doc period in the Laboratory for Engineering of Biomembranes. In addition, she presented the results of two short-term research stays abroad

Postdoctoral researcher Barbara Pem was awarded a scholarship from RBI Director and French Embassy in Croatia for a short-term research stay in France. The scholarship enabled the one-month stay at the Institut des Molécules et des Matériaux du Mans, Le Mans, France with the host Prof. Marc Lamy de la Chapelle. From November 13th to December 12th, she conducted experiments to optimize the synthesis of gold nanoparticles encapsulated with liposomes, and to characterize said co

As a part of the activities of DAAD-MZO German-Croatian bilateral project "Myelin protein impact on membrane phase state, morphology and structure", Dr Bakarić visited the laboratory of Dr Rumiana Dimova at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam (Germany) from November 27th to 30th 2023. This visit serves to strengthen the established collaboration and to plan the continuation of project activities.

Postdoctoral researcher Barbara Pem was awarded a scholarship from RBI Director for a short-term research stay abroad. The scholarship enabled the one-month stay at the . Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry i Prague, Czech Republic with the host Prof. Lukasz Cwiklik. From October 1st to 29th, she conducted experiments to study the interaction of various ligands (small molecules, peptides or polystyrene) on lipid monolayers at the water/air interface, using the technique

Nikolina Groznica, a student from the Faculty of Science in Zagreb, joined LEB as a student researcher working on a project for her master thesis. She is mentored by Dr Bakarić, with Lea Pašalić as her direct supervisor. She is working on the characterization of peptide-lipid interactions.

As a part of the DAAD-MZO German-Croatian bilateral project "Myelin protein impact on membrane phase state, morphology and structure", junior researchers from the laboratory of Dr Rumiana Dimova at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam (Germany) visited RBI from September 18th to 22nd, 2023. PhD student Nicky Tam and postdoctoral researcher Dr Agustin Mangiarotti visited the Laboratory for Engineering of Biomembranes and experienced the day-to-day expe