News & Events

The members of the Laboratory for Engineering of Membranes participated in the symposium Peptide Chemistry Day 2023, which gathers the researchers in the field of peptide chemistry and encourages collaboration and advancement of peptide sciences. The symposium was held on September 20th 2023. The Laboratory head Dr Bakarić held a lecture titled "Contribution of proton transfer to the adsorption of cationic hydrophobic peptides on zwitterionic lipid membranes", where she prese

Postdoctoral researcher Barbara Pem participated in the symposium Computational Chemistry Day 2023, held on September 16th in Zagreb, Croatia. Dr Pem presented a poster titled "Structural Differences of Symmetric and Asymmetric Mixed-Lipid Bilayers Observed by Classical Molecular Dynamics", where she showed the comparison of the simulations of symmetric and asymmetric mixed-lipid bilayers.

LEB collaborator Dr Marko Černe from the Institute of Agriculture and Tourism in Poreč, Croatia visited RBI on Tuesday September 5th 2023. Dr Černe held a public lecture for RBI scientists on his work on the composition and applications of olive pomace. The lecture was titled "Valorization of olive pomace through use in agriculture".

Laboratory for Engineering of Biomembranes is open for chemistry and biomedical science students to conduct their required student practice under the supervision of lab members. LEB is currently hosting Tihana Mlinarić, a 3rd-year student from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, who is learning about preparation and characterization of lipid membranes in the presence of cationic peptides. The student is working under the direct supervision of Lea Pašalić.

PhD student Petra Maleš participated in the 12th International Conference on Advanced Vibrational Spectroscopy, held from August 27th to September 1st 2023 in Krakow, Poland. She presented a poster titled "The revelation of interactions in model myelin with FTIR spectroscopy", showing her experience in lipid membrane research by infrared spectroscopy. Her hard work was rewarded with the Best Poster Award given by the conference organizing committee. Congratulations! The confe

Dr Barbara Pem will participate in the 9th Symposium of the European Federation of Medicinal Chemists on the Advancements in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry, held in Zagreb from September 3rd to 7th 2023. The poster titled "Lipid interactions with different cationic peptides: Towards the understanding of membrane disrupting activity" will present the results of a computational study of different binding of arginine- and lysine-rich peptides onto a lipid membrane, with the p

As a part of the DAAD-MZO German-Croatian bilateral project "Myelin protein impact on membrane phase state, morphology and structure", LEB junior researchers had the opportunity to visit the laboratory of Dr Rumiana Dimova at the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam, Germany. PhD students Lea Pašalić and Petra Maleš stayed in Potsdam for 3 weeks (25.6. - 15.7. 2023.) to learn about the preparation of giant unilamellar vesicles and their visualization usin

Dr Danijela Bakarić held a lecture at the international conference Adriatic NMR 2023 titled "Synergy of NMR and FTIR spectroscopy in the characterization of asymmetric liposomes". In her lecture she presented the development of a protocol for the preparation of asymmetric liposomes containing phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylserine, and the ability of NMR spectroscopy to distinguish asymmetric liposomes from the symmetric ones. This research is also notable for the use of

On May 23rd 2023, Dr Danijela Bakarić held an inaugural lecture titled "BACK TO THE FUTURE: LIPID SUSPENSIONS AND THEIR CHARACTERIZATIONS" as a part of the procedure to gain the position of Senior scientific associate. In her lecture she gave an overview of her work on the application of spectroscopic and calorimetric techniques in the research of the structure and interactions of model lipid membranes in the last five years.

PhD student Lea Pašalić gave a lecture at the 7th Faculty of Science PhD Student Symposium held in Zagreb from April 21st to 22nd 2023. Her lecture was titled "Arginine-rich peptides vs. Lysine-rich peptides: impact on differently charged lipid bilayers", and she spoke of her research on differing response of zwitterionic and negatively charged lipid bilayers to the presence of arginine- or lysine-rich peptides.

Postdoctoral researcher Dr Barbara Pem on April 4th 2023 held a public lecture as a part of the lecture series of the Department for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruđer Bošković Institute. Her lecture, titled "The role of computational chemistry in the research of structure and interactions of lipid membranes", demonstrated the results of her first year of employment at LEB. Dr Pem is involved in the simulations of lipid membranes interacting with various ligands.

PhD students Petra Maleš and Lea Pašalić participated at the 28th Croatian Meeting of Chemists and Chemical Engineers, held in Rovinj, Croatia from March 28th to 31st. The students presented their work through posters. Petra Maleš, Mr Chem, presented her research on the formation of inverse hexagonal phase of phospholipids on a poster titled "The signature of inverse hexagonal phase of phosphoethanolamine lipids". Lea Pašalić, Mr Chem, presented the results of her research st

PhD Student Lea Pašalić on February 28th 2023 held a public lecture as a part of the lecture series of the Department for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruđer Bošković Institute. Her lecture, titled "The characterization of physico-chemical properties of lipid bilayers in the presence of gold nanoparticle aggregates", showed the results of her short-term research stay at Le Mans University in France. Under the supervision of LEB collaborator Dr Marc Lamy de la Chapelle,

On October 25th 2022, PhD Student Petra Maleš held a public lecture as a part of the lecture series of the Department for Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruđer Bošković Institute. Her lecture, titled "The secrets of the brain sphingomyelin", showed the results of her first year of employment at LEB. Petra Maleš is involved in the analysis of thermotropic properties of sphingomyelin bilayers as models of brain myelin.