Group for Molecular Biomedicine

The efforts of the Group for Molecular Biomedicine (GMB) are directed towards research of the molecular basis of health and disease and translational biomedicine with the aim of implementing personalized medicine based on the patient's personal genome in the health system. GMB uses next-generation sequencing technology, GWAS, and bioinformatics tools such as machine learning to monitor response to therapy and design predictive testing panels.

GMB research is focused on the following topics:

Pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics and pharmacotranscriptomics as a basis for the application of personalized medicine in the treatment of various diseases (childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia, inflammatory bowel diseases, systemic sclerosis, COVID19, assessment of placental function in pregnant women)
Hematological malignancies: identification of molecular markers for disease stratification, prognosis and adequate treatment (childhood acute leukemia, acute and chronic adult leukemia, myeloma, lymphomas)
Solid tumors: application of liquid biopsy in the identification of molecular markers of prognosis, disease monitoring and therapy (non-small cell lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, gliomas), comprehensive genomic profiling (non-small cell lung cancer)
COVID19: genomic profile of patients with COVID19 as insight into interindividual differences between patients with different clinical presentation
Regenerative medicine: molecular basis of Buerger's disease, osteoarthritis in veterinary medicine

Successful cooperation with numerous prominent centers and top scientists from EU countries resulted in joint works and partnership in significant projects. The GMB team actively participates in the education of young staff within the University of Belgrade, especially in the process of preparing multidisciplinary doctoral theses. Also, the popularization and promotion of molecular genetics, genomics and biomedicine at all levels is a constant activity of the researchers of the Molecular Biomedicine Group.

Branka Zukic

Full Research Professor

Group for Molecular Biomedicine
Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Genomics

branka.zukic@imgge.bg.ac.rs

Dr. Branka Zukić is a Full Research Proffesor at the IMGGE and Head of the Group for Molecular Biomedicine. She served two terms as Vice President of the Scientific Council of IMGGE and was a member of the Institute’s Ethics Committee for ten years, from its establishment.

Her research is focused on the molecular genetics and genomics of complex diseases, with particular emphasis on pharmacogenomics, pharmacotranscriptomics, and the application of personalized medicine in autoimmune diseases, hematological malignancies, solid tumors, and regenerative medicine. She has developed expertise in the identification and validation of molecular biomarkers of therapeutic response and adverse drug reactions. Through the analysis of patients’ genomic and transcriptomic profiles, she contributes to improving disease stratification, prognosis, and therapy selection.

In her work, she applies advanced molecular biology and bioinformatics approaches, including next-generation sequencing (NGS), gene expression analysis, pharmacogenomic analyses, liquid biopsy, and integrative interpretation of genomic data. She is also developing induced pluripotent stem cell model systems for the investigation of adverse drug reactions. The results of her research have been published in more than 70 scientific papers.

She was the PI of the successfully completed Horizon Europe PharmGenHUB project (2022–2025) and is currently a partner in the Horizon Europe InnoThyroGen project (2025–2028). She maintains successful collaborations with the pharmaceutical companies Roche and AstraZeneca.

She is also the coordinator of the course “Gene and Cell Therapy with Pharmacogenomics” within the postgraduate molecular biology studies at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, course coordinator in the Master Bioinformatics 4.0 program, and lecturer in specialist studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Belgrade.

She is particularly dedicated to the education of young researchers and students, as demonstrated by her mentorship of four successfully defended doctoral dissertations, as well as by her active engagement in the promotion and popularization of molecular genetics, genomics, and biomedicine.

IMGGE work program (2026)

Innovating Thyroid Health with Genomics and Predictive Algorithms through Collaborative Excellence (InnoThyroGen) (2025-2028)

FULL RESEARCH PROFESSOR

ASSOCIATE RESEARCH PROFESSOR

ASSISTANT RESEARCH PROFESSOR

Research Assistant

JUNIOR RESEARCHER

Publications