Prof. Dr. Danijela Gregurec

Curriculum Vitae

Education and research experience
2020 – present	Professor for Sensory Sciences	FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
2020	Postdoctoral research associate	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, USA
2016	PhD in Molecular Biology and Biomedicine	CIC biomaGUNE, San Sebastian, Spain
2010	MSc in Applied Chemistry	University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
2008	BSc and Engineering in Chemistry, Materials and Ecology	University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Research visits
2014	Visiting scientist	ZIK HIKE, Greifswald, Germany
2014	Marie Curie fellow	INIFTA, La Plata, Argentina
Memberships and panel activities
2024 – present	Member of the Competence Center Engineering of Advanced Materials	FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
2023 – present	Board member of the Optical Imaging Center Erlangen (OICE)	FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
2023 – present	Founding member of the Research Center New Bioactive Compounds (NeW)	FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
2023 – present	Mentor for fellows of Max Weber Program	Elitenetzwerk Bayern, Germany
2023 – present	Member of the scientific evaluation panel of the Horizon Europe, MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships	European Commission
2022 – present	Member of the scientific evaluation panel of the Portuguese national funding agency for science, research, and technology	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal
2022 – present	Reviewer for Humboldt Research Fellowships	Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Germany
2021	Committee Member for the appointment of W1 professorship in Physical Chemistry	FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

 

Academic Career

 

After her MSc degree in applied chemistry at the University of Zagreb (Croatia), Danijela started her PhD in 2011 at the biomaterials research center biomaGUNE (Spain) with Dr. Moya. Her primary focus was on the design of biocompatible and bioresponsive inorganic interfaces that resemble extracellular matrix. She used these materials to study how chemical, physical, and mechanical properties of the materials govern interactions with cells. Some of her approaches implemented controlled release of bioactive ions from the polymeric surfaces and reliance on bio-inspired substrate coatings. These systems in turn allowed mechanistic studies of cell-surface interactions and determination of constituents promoting cell-substrate interactions.

In 2014 as Marie Curie fellow she visited Prof. Azzaroni’s lab at the INIFTA (Argentina) to apply electrochemical characterization methods in studies of biopolymer coatings used in tissue engineering. Later that year she was invited at the ZIK HIKE (Germany) to work with Prof. Delcea on determination of nanomechanical properties of titania-based implant surfaces with atomic force spectroscopy.

 

In 2016 she joined the Prof. Anikeeva Bioelectronics Group at MIT (USA) to follow her fascination for neurobiology. Her work was focused on applying the biomaterials engineering to study and modulate the interactions with nervous system. Her favourite piece of work is development of a magnetomechanical neuromodulation technology that allows for nongenetic control of neuronal signalling in the peripheral nervous system. This technology allows for wireless activation of mechanosensory cells leveraging the force (torque) exerted from the magnetic nanodiscs (MND), specifically targeted to the mechanosensitive ion channels