Mirela Matokanovic.

Background
Mirela received her M.Sc. degree in Molecular Biology, University of Zagreb in Croatia, 2006. She is a Ph.D. candidate, presently completing her final year of studies at Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb. She is currently a graduate research trainee under the supervision of Dr. Dusica Maysinger in the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics at McGill University.

Research highlight
Mirela is interested in cancer therapy. The aim of her research is to silence stress proteins in order to induce apoptosis in cancer cells in vitro. For this purpose she is using small inhibitory RNAs entrapped in chitosan nanoparticles in combination with drugs with antitumor effects.

Fellowships & awards

1. CEEPUS II Mobility grant (2008)
2. EMBO Short Term Fellowship (2011)

Publications

1. RNA interference as a new tool in therapeutics. Matokanovic, M. and Barisic, K. Food Technol. Biotechnol. 47 (3) (2009) 229-235
2. Association of hsp70-2 (+ 1267A/G), hsp70-hom (+ 2437T/C), HMOX-1 (number of GT repeats) and TNF-alpha (+ 489G/A) polymorphisms with COPD in Croatian population. Matokanovic, M., Rumora, L., Popovic-Grle, S., Cepelak, I., Culic, O. and Barisic, K. Clin. Biochem. 45 (10-11) (2012) 59-63