Emilija Milošević, Research Assistant in IMGGE, has defended her PhD thesis entitled "Characterization of the ANKRD1 gene and the effect of violacein on rhabdomyosarcoma cells in vitro" at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade. The thesis was done in the Muscle Cellular and Molecular Biology Group under supervision of Dr. Jovana Jasnić.

In this research, Emilija Milošević investigated the role of the ANKRD1 gene in rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive tumor of muscle tissue, and tested the natural compound violacein as an antitumor agent for the treatment of this disease.

The following two publications resulted from this doctoral dissertation:

Milosevic E, Stanisavljevic N, Boskovic S, Stamenkovic N, Novkovic M, Bavelloni A, Cenni V, Kojic S, Jasnic J. Antitumor activity of natural pigment violacein against osteosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2023;149(13):10975-10987.

Milosevic E, Novkovic M, Cenni V, Bavelloni A, Kojic S, Jasnic J. Molecular characterization of ANKRD1 in rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines: expression, localization, and proteasomal degradation. Histochem Cell Biol. 2024;161(5):435-444.