Zeljka Sanader

I am Željka Sanader, a Postdoctoral researcher at the CBL.

I received my Master’s degree in Physics, with biophysical orientation from Faculty of science, University of Split. I was very enthusiastic about researching biological systems so I started Ph.D. in Biophysics, where I investigated optical properties of hybrid systems of biomolecules and metallic clusters for application in biosensors and imaging. I used density functional theory to investigate these systems, and with close experimental collaboration, we described linear and nonlinear properties of these systems and worked out a concept for designing systems with excellent optical properties which can serve for efficient imaging of tissues and cells.

At DCRC, I will be working on a project in collaboration with the Chalmers University of Technology (Goteborg, Sweden). The main goal of the project is engineering known enzymes with a certain activity toward non-natural substrates, to cover important steps in green chemistry and as biotherapeutic adjuvants. We will design in silico mutant variants of the enzymes that can change substrate specificity, as well as simulate the effects of mutations identified experimentally by saturation mutagenesis and DNA shuffling.

We will use methods that range from molecular modeling, classical molecular simulations, and quantum mechanics to study structure, dynamics and reactivity.

I will be also collaborating on ongoing projects in the field of cadmium toxicity and its role in cancer using similar tools.

here more information on my publications (h-index=7, citations=92):

https://scholar.google.dk/citations?user=Ics4MVAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao