| TITLES AND FUNCTION
- 1994 diploma degree, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana.
- 1999 doctoral thesis in the field of Medicinal Chemistry
- 1994-1999: young Researcher at the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana.
- 1999-2005: Assistant Professor.
- 2005-2010: Associate Professor.
- From December 2010 on: Full Profesor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana.
- 2005-Oct. 2007, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy.
- From. Oct. 2007 to Oct. 2011, Dean in the Faculty of Pharmacy, and member of the University of Ljubljana Senate.
RESEARCH INTEREST
Structure-based, in-silico design, synthesis and evaluation of small-molecule enzyme inhibitors. Inhibitors of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis. Antitumour agents. Synthesis of mimetics of natural compounds: peptidomimetics, glycomimetics, lipidomimetics.
Expertise: drug discovery, medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry, in-silico drug design, virtual high-throughput screening, organic chemistry.
CONTRIBUTIONS
- Author or co-author of 85 publications in important peer-reviewed journals; two comprehensive book chapters in Houben-Weyl Science of Synthesis.
- Founder of the Laboratory for virtual high-throughput screening and biochemical evaluation of small-molecule enzyme inhibitors in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Ljubljana (2007).
- Collaborative research between Faculty of Pharmacy and industry in Slovenia (Lek d.d., Krka d.d.); joint patent applications.
- Initiation of collaborative research between Faculty of Pharmacy and big pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, collaborative FP7 project ORCHID.
- Referee for different journals, including: Chemical Reviews, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters, Tetrahedron, Tetrahedron Letters, Archiv der Pharmazie, etc.
- Member of the European Federation for Medicinal Chemistry.
- Participation in numerous international scientific meetings (including 7 as invited Keynote speaker).
WORK IN EXPERT COMMISSIONS
- 2000-2005: Member of the Commission for the preparation of national supplements to the European Pharmacopoeia.
- 2003-2005: Member of the Council of Institute of Pharmacy and Drug Research, Ljubljana.
- From 2004 on: member of the Editorial board of the national journal Farmacevtski vestnik.
TEACHING APPOINTMENTS
Undergraduate subjects in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Ljubljana:
- “Pharmaceutical Chemistry”, “Eutomers” and “Dietary Supplements”, for students of the Pharmacy Master degree program.
- “Introduction to Biomedical Analytics”, for students of the Bachelor degree program in Laboratory Biomedicine.
- “Discovery of New Drugs”, for the students of the Master degree program in Industrial Pharmacy.
- “Design and Synthesis of Enzyme Inhibitors”, for the students of the postgraduate Biomedicine program.
STUDENT SUPERVISION
Supervisor/ mentor for 64 undergraduate student theses in Pharmacy.
Supervisor/ mentor of seven PhD students.
FUNDING
Past research grants:
- Lek Pharmaceuticals d.d. (a Sandoz company, Novartis), Slovenia. Development of new synthetic methods. 100,000.00 Euro. June 2006-October 2011.
- Krka d.d., Slovenia. Development of new synthetic methods. 50,000.00 Euro. April 2005-
October 2011.
- FP6 Integrated Project “EUR-INTAFAR”: Inhibition of new targets for fighting bacterial resistance (from 1.1.2005 to 30.06.2010, funding for the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana: 645 000 Euro). The PI was a partner in this project.
Current research grant:
- Funding of 3 PhD students by the Slovenian Research Agency (100 000 Euro/year)
- “Orchid: an open collaborative model for TB drug discovery and lead optimisation”, FP7 Medium Scale Collaborative project (from 1.1.2010 to 31.12.2014, funding for the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana: 685 000 Euro). The PI is a partner in this project.
- “Preclinical development of new antimicrobial agents”, small basic project at the Slovenian Research Agency (from 1.7.2010 to 30.6.2014, funding for the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana: 200 000 Euro). The PI is project leader.
AWARDS
2011 Zois award for scientific achievements in the field of pharmaceutical chemistry. |