Curriculum vitae

Nikolina Papac- Milicevic was born in 1975 in Zagreb, Croatia. After graduating in Molecular biology at the Faculty of Science of the University of Zagreb, she joined the Department of Vascular Biology of the Medical University Vienna in 2000 where she obtained her PhD in 2005. She proceeded to work as a junior Postdoctoral fellow there until 2011.
In 2011 she joined to the group of Professor Christoph J. Binder at the Department of Laboratory Medicine of The Medical University Vienna as Principal Investigator.

Know-how and research interests

The Complement system is the humoral part of innate immunity and plays an important role in the host´s maintenance of homeostasis. In her recent scientific research Nikolina Papac- Milicevic concentrates on the understanding the role of complement in mechanisms that are modulating sterile-inflammation.

In 2012, she identified the interferon stimulated gene 12 (ISG12) as a positive contributor in restenosis development that inactivates NR4A1 vasculoprotective functions (Papac- Milicevic et al., 2012).
After moving to the laboratory of Prof. Christoph J. Binder the emphasis of her research focused on recognition of oxidation specific epitopes by various complement components, such as complement component 4 binding protein (C4BP)  and factor H related proteins (FHRs), as well as defense mechanisms initiated by it (Alic L et al., 2020; Papac-Milicevic at al., Manuscript in preparation).
Her research is based on various mouse models of chronic or acute inflammation, genetics analysis, FACS, histology and various in vitro procedures to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of observed effects and to verify strategic targets for potential therapeutic intervention in human diseases driven by chronic inflammation.

Main Research Interests

• Role of complement system in inflammation and oxidative stress
• Understanding the mechanisms modulating sterile inflammation in metabolic diseases