Date of Birth: December 7th, 1967
Place of Birth: Zagreb, Croatia
Education:
University of Zagreb, BSc, 1991
University of Zagreb, MSc, 1994
University of Zagreb, PhD, 1999
Contact Address
Ksenija Zahradka, PhD
Division of Molecular Biology
Ruđer Bošković Institute
Bijenička 54
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia
Phone: +385 1 4560 971
Fax: +385 1 4561 177
E-Mail: kvlahovi@irb.hr
Ksenija Zahradka is Research Associate in Division of Molecular Biology at Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb. Together with Miroslav Radman she is heading a research group Life under Extreme Conditions at MedILS since 2007.
From 1986 to 1991 she studied molecular biology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Zagreb. Since 1991 she has been working at Ruđer Bošković Institute, first as a Research Assistant, and since 2003 as a Research Associate. She received her M.Sc. in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 1994 and her Ph.D. in Biology in 1999 from the University of Zagreb. In 2002 she spent a postdoctoral year in the group of Prof. Miroslav Radman at the Medical Faculty Necker, University of Paris, France.
Her research focuses on studying genes, enzymes and molecular mechanisms of DNA recombination and repair in prokaryotes. She is also interested in interplay between recombination and DNA replication, chromosome segregation and cell division. Currently, she is using genetic and molecular biology tools to study the mechanisms of radiation and desiccation resistance in extremophile bacterium Deinoococcus radiodurans.
Ksenija Zahradka was collaborator on several national scientific projects and on two international research projects. Since 2003 she has been actively involved in graduate and postgraduate teaching at the University of Zagreb.
Ksenija Zahradka is a recipient of the Croatian Annual Science Award in the field of natural sciences, for the best scientific discovery in 2006.