Ivana Banić, PhD, is an Associate at the Research Department at Srebrnjak Children’s Hospital. She obtained her MSc in Molecular Biology in 2010 and her PhD in Biomedicine in 2019. She has more than ten years of experience in biomedical research (molecular allergy and immunology), the innovations sector, and clinical studies. She has participated in several national and international research projects (EU FP7, EU Horizon, ERDF IRI, etc.) and has co-authored more than 15 scientific publications. She is an Assistant Lecturer in the “Basics of Pediatric Allergy” course at the University of Zagreb, School of Medicine (in English). In 2016, she received the prestigious European Respiratory Society Short-Term Research and Training Fellowship and is currently an acting member in several expert organizations (EAACI, ERS, IUAES, IRS, and CROSBIH). She is also a reviewer for several international scientific journals (PLOS ONE, Asthma Research and Practice, and MDPI publishing group).
Prof. Mirjana Turkalj, MD, PhD, graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Zagreb. She completed specialist training in paediatrics in 1998, and subspecialist training in paediatric allergy and clinical immunology, and pediatric pulmonology in 2005. She was elected to the position of Assistant Professor in 2015, followed by a full Professorship in 2019. She served as a Deputy Director of the Srebrnjak Children’s Hospital in Zagreb (DBS, 2010–2019), the Head of the Reference Centre of Clinical Allergology of the Croatian Ministry of Health, and Head of the Department for Allergology, Immunology, and Pulmonology at DBS. Her academic work is based at the Faculty of Medicine of the Croatian Catholic University, the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Zagreb, the Medical School of the University of Osijek, and the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology. Her interests include immunological mechanisms of asthma and allergic diseases, mechanisms of allergen-specific immunotherapy, food allergy and food immunotherapy, and the effect of environmental factors on the development of allergic diseases. She has published more than 240 manuscripts and 30 book chapters. She is the PI of several research programs funded through EU funds, with a large network of collaborators in several EU countries and the UK.
