Prof.dr. Janja Marc, EuSpLM is full professor of Clinical Biochemistry at University of Ljubljana and the head of Laboratory of molecular diagnostics at Faculty of Pharmacy. In period of 2007-2014, she was the head of Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Faculty of Pharmacy. She is giving lectures at all three levels of of Pharmacy and Laboratory biomedicine university studies. Her lectures are covering different topics of clinical chemistry, laboratory medicine and molecular diagnostics. She has been the tutor to over 150 diplomas/masters and 13 PhD theses. She is the coordinator of PhD program of Clinical Biochemistry and principal coordinator of the network in international CEEPUS student exchange program.
Her research is focused on genetic backgrounds of complex diseases in humans in order to find genetic markers of the diseases and/or pathways important for diseases etiology. Good diagnostics based on specific and sensitive biomarkers and understanding the pathogenesis of diseases at molecular level represent good start for development of new (target) drugs. For many years she is studying the genetic background of diseases like osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, insulin resistance, obesity (metabolic syndrome), toxicity of heavy metal exposure and also the lung cancer. After many genotype-phenotype association studies and later the whole genome and transcriptome analyses of osteoblasts her group continued to functional evaluation of genetic variations using transfected cells models, primary osteoblasts and mesenchymal stem cells. Important part of her research is related to aging and the impact of epigenetic factors like micro RNAs, histone modulating enzymes and DNA methylation on bone tissue.
In pharmacogenetic studies she is studying the genetic variations in UDP glucoronyl-transferase gene on raloxifene metabolism, pleotropic effects of statins and ion transporters genes in imatinib resistance as well as different Cyp variants on varfarin, clopidrogrel and tamoksifen pharmacokinetics. She was investigator in 18 national and international research projects and is the member of five international consortiums: GEFOS/GENOMOS, VEGF, EuPIC, STRAT-TBI and OsteTarget. She is the author of over 109 scientific papers with over 1500 citations (h-index=19) and member of four editorial boards of international scientific journals.
At professional level Janja Marc served as the leader or member in different committees and regulatory bodies related to the field of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine in Slovenia and abroad. Her professional career prof. dr. Marc is building on the integration of the three pillars of laboratory medicine: teaching, research and profession and she sees her main mission in translation the scientific knowledge intoprofessional practice as also in the transfer of professional guidelines back into the teaching process.
Present positions:
- the member of Laboratory diagnostics advisory board at Ministry of health RS (since 2010)
- the member of board of European Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personal Therapy (since 2012)
- the chair of Education Division at European Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personal Therapy (since 2017)
- the member of working group Personalized Laboratory Medicine at European Federation of Laboratory medicine (since 2012)
Past positions:
- General Secretary and co-chair of Education Division at European Society for Pharmacogenomics and Personal Therapy (2012-2016)
- Chair of Laboratory diagnostics advisory board at Ministry of health RS (2010-2012)
- Chair of the Commission for licencing and education at Slovenian Laboratory Medicine Chamber (2007-2014)
- Member of executive board of SACCLM (1993-1997 in 2000 -2004)
Key words: aging, epigenetics, functional genetics, muscle-skeletal diseases, human bone tissue, genome, transcriptome, pharmacogenetics, biomarkers, personalized laboratory medicine
Selected references:
- Shungin D, Winkler TW, Croteau-Chonka DC, Ferreira T, Locke A, Marc J, Mägi R, Strawbridge R, Pers TH, Fischer K, et al, GEFOS. New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution. Nature 2015, vol. 518(7538): 187-196
- Estrada Karol, Marc Janja, Preželj Janez, Mencej Bedrač Simona. Genome-wide meta-analysis identifies 56 bone mineral density loci and reveals 14 loci associated with risk of fracture. Nat Genet, 2012, 44 (5): 491-501. doi: 10.1038/ng.2249
- Kranjc T, Ostanek B and Marc J. Bone microRNA and aging. Curr pharm biotechnol 2017, 18. doi: 10.2174/1389201018666170203091828. Presentation:https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6YShwdPsmlOU1Z1cldNSjl4Vkk
- Mlakar V, Jurković Mlakar S, Zupan J, Komadina R, Preželj J, Marc J. ADRA2a is involved in neuro-endocrine regulation of bone resorption. J Cell Mol Med, 2015,19 (7):1520-1529
- Vrtačnik P, Marc J, Ostanek B. Epigenetic mechanisms in bone. Clin chem lab med 2014, 52(5): 589-608.
- Trošt Zoran, Trebše Rihard, Preželj Janez, Komadina Radko, Bitenc Logar Darja, Marc Janja. A microarray based identification of osteoporosis-related genes in primary culture of human osteoblasts. Bone, 2010, 46(1):72-80. doi: 10.1016/j.bone.2009.09.01
- Ostanek B, Marc J. Osteoporosis pharmacogenomics: recent insights and future perspectives. Pharmacogenomics (Lond.) 2013, 14:451-454. doi: 10.2217/PGS.13.9.
- Trdan Lušin T, Stieger B, Marc J, Mrhar A, Trontelj J, Zavratnik A, Ostanek B. Organic anion transporting polypeptides OATP1B1 and OATP1B3 and their genetic variants influence the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of raloxifene. J Transl Med 2012, 10:76
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