Marija Atanasković is a research assistant in the Sociomicrobiology Group at the Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering (IMGGE), University of Belgrade (Serbia). Her research interests center on bacterial biofilms, biofilm matrix-degrading enzymes, and antivirulence strategies.

Currently, Marija is conducting the experimental work for her PhD thesis, which focuses on the identification and characterization of novel bacterial glycoside hydrolases with potential applications in biofilm matrix degradation relevant to medical settings. Her work involves genome mining of natural bacterial sources, heterologous expression and biochemical characterization of candidate enzymes, profiling biofilm formation and matrix composition in clinically relevant bacterial strains, and testing the efficacy of enzymes on various biofilm models.

Marija earned her Bachelor's degree in Molecular Biology and Physiology from the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, in 2019, followed by a Master's degree in Biology Teaching in 2020. After working as a biology teacher for 18 months, she enrolled in the PhD program in Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology at the Faculty of Biology in 2021 and began working at IMGGE as a Junior Researcher in 2022.