Jelena Pejić

Jelena Pejić, Research assistant, obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in biology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade in 2018 and 2019, respectively. She was on a summer internship in the Department of In Vitro Fertilization at the Clinic for Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Clinical Center of Serbia in 2019. She has defended her master’s thesis entitled: The effects of black chokeberry fruit extract (Aronia melanocarpa) on the immune cells in vitro and on the development of Lysteria monocytogenes infection in BALB/c mice, in the Department of Immunology at the Institute for Biological Research „Siniša Stanković”, University of Belgrade in 2019. She enrolled in a PhD program in molecular biology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade in 2019. Since 2022, she has been working as a Research Assistant in the Laboratory for Human Molecular Genetics at the Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade. She is working on the experimental part of her doctoral thesis entitled: The effect of caffeine, taurine, and ethanol as components of energy and alcoholic drinks on the differentiation, morphological, and functional characteristics of neurons and astrocytes in a model system of human neurogenesis in vitro. Her expertise is based on testing the bioactive potential of plant extracts, natural and synthetic compounds, polymer composites, and carbon nanomaterial using in vitro model system – cancer cell lines. She participated in the dissemination of the Researchers’ Night project through various lectures and workshops organized in secondary schools in Serbia in 2022 and 2023. She was awarded for the best poster presentation in the section of biotechnology posters at the Second Congress of Molecular Biologists of Serbia (CoMBoS2) in 2023. As a participant of the STREAMLINE project, authorized by the European Union, through a 2.5-month staff exchange in 2024, she will gain expertise in high-throughput cell-based assays for screening the responsiveness of cells to drugs at CERTH, Thessaloniki, Greece. ORCID: 0000-0002-0214-4361, Scopus Author ID: 55249597800. She is a member of the Serbian Society for Molecular Biology (MolBioS) and Serbian Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (BIRBI).