Dr. Miodrag Dragoj

Dr. Miodrag Dragoj graduated in 2013 from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Belgrade in the study group Molecular Biology and Physiology. He conducted the experimental part of his graduation thesis at the Neurobiology Department of the Institute for Biological Research ‘Siniša Stanković.’ He enrolled in the doctoral academic studies in Molecular Biology, specializing in the Molecular Biology of Eukaryotes, during the academic year 2013/2014 at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Biology. Since July 2014, he has been employed at the Neurobiology Department of the ‘Siniša Stanković’ Institute for Biological Research at the University of Belgrade.

During the preparation of his doctoral studies, he conducted his scientific research through the project ‘Identification of molecular markers for predicting tumor progression, response to therapy, and disease outcome’ (III41031), funded by the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia. Within this project, he completed his doctoral thesis titled ‘Effects of CXCR4 receptor and focal adhesion kinase inhibition in invasion suppression and overcoming resistance in non-small cell lung cancer,’ obtaining the academic title of Doctor of Biological Sciences on October 9, 2018. He is the recipient of the ‘Goran Ljubijankić’ Foundation award for the best doctoral thesis in molecular biology, defended in 2018 in Serbia. He earned his first scientific title as a research associate on November 18, 2019.

Following his doctorate, he participated as one of the representatives from Serbia in two international interdisciplinary projects: ‘Optimization of glioblastoma therapy’ (a project funded by the American James S. McDonnell Foundation) and ‘Development of thioredoxin reductase inhibitors as new anti-cancer agents’ (ERA.Net RUS+ project). Additionally, Dr. Dragoj currently manages a project work package as part of the IDEJE program, supported by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, titled ‘Functional diagnostics of non-small cell lung cancer – a new concept for improving personalized therapy in Serbia’ (TargetedResponse).

Dr. Miodrag Dragoj is the lead author on six out of 17 publications from the ‘SCI’ list, while he is the last author on one publication.