Successful NEWFELPRO stories: Antonija Jurak Begonja and thrombopoiesis

 
 Antonija Jurak Begonja, picture taken from the website.

Antonija Jurak Begonja is a NEWFELPRO's researcher from the reintegration scheme who has successfully completed the implementation of her two year long project entitled The Role of phosphatydilinositol 3-monophosphate and thrombopoiesis (CRPD) at the Department of Biotechnology of the University of Rijeka.

Her project aimed to reveal the role of different subcellular membranes in the formation of platelets. The platelets are necessary for wound healing and control of bleeding, and during the treatment of cancer, leukemia and organ transplants reduction of platelets is quite common, which puts patients at the risk of bleeding. Platelets are derived from large cells in the bone marrow, megakaryocytes, in a process called thrombopoiesis. The molecular mechanisms that regulate cytoplasmic changes of megakaryocytes into platelets are largely unknown. Researcher therefore used genetic fluorescent probes to spatially and temporally identify different subcellular membranes and how they contribute to the biogenesis of platelets. The research contributes to the understanding of the underlying molecular processes in formation of platelets which may lead to new therapeutic strategies for modulating the number of platelets in humans.

During NEWFELPRO project, A. J. Begonja published following papers:
Also, she did  presentations based on her NEWFELPRO project results at the following conferences:


Antonija Jurak Begonja has been a CEEPUS stipendist for two times, the winner of the award of the American Hematologic Society in the year 2010, and her work based on NEWFELPRO project has been awarded at European Platelet Network conference in 2016.  Work of dr. A J. Begonja has been on the cover of scientific journal „Blood“ for several times. She is also a professional member of the International Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) and the Croatian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (HDBMB).

Congratulations!