Biosketch

I obtained my BSc and MSc in Biotechnology at the Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Throughout my studies, I did several exchanges and practical courses abroad, including a semester in Lund, Sweden, and apprenticeship in 2 different laboratories in Munich, Germany. This gave me the desire to explore the scientific community further, so I applied to a position to do a master thesis at iMM with dr. Simao Rocha in the group of prof. dr. Maria Carmo Fonseca.

Currently, I am a 2nd year PhD student in The RNA Networks Laboratory (Jernej Ule’s lab) in between Ljubljana, Slovenia and London, UK working primarily on the architecture and assembly of RNA-scaffolded biomolecular condensates during early murine embryonic development under supervision of dr. Miha Modic.

Testimony

After having spent roughly 9 months at iMM (2019), I graduated with honours – received the highest university level award for my master thesis (The Prešeren Prize for Students of the University of Ljubljana) and also managed to publish a paper as a result of my and my colleagues’ work there (https://academic.oup.com/nar/article/48/16/e92/5867412).

Following that, I also received the iMM Best Master Thesis award 2020, for which I am very grateful. Overall, I always felt very welcome at the institute, and in general felt like a good support system for scientists is being actively built there. The facilities I’ve worked with were very keen on collaborating and helpful throughout the experiments, and I had a sense that the institute (the administration and leaders) is very open to new ideas and challenges. Since I am doing my PhD in a newly built lab, I am also helping to develop it as it goes, and I must confess I am taking many good practices from iMM as a model or standard of how it’s supposed to be.

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