Soon after defending my doctorate at the Faculty of Chemistry in Belgrade, in the field of plant biochemistry, I took on my first project manager position, and it came within the framework of the Pavle Savić Programme of French-Serbian scientific bilateral cooperation.
This project, “Regulation of fluxes of carbon and nitrogen compounds from primary to secondary metabolic pathways during stress responses in hybridised species,” enabled me to collaborate with Professor Anis Limami and Dr Françoise Montrichard of the University of Angers and the INRAE Institute. During the course of the project (2018-2019), me and our doctoral student visited the Angers University team three times, where we carried out modern analyses of isotopically labelled amino acids and acquainted ourselves with the organisation of the research work of our French colleagues, Professor Limami, Dr Montrichard and their doctoral student visited our laboratories twice, in order to learn about EPR spectroscopy. With exceptional results published in two highly esteemed international journals, collaboration with the team from Angers is continuing.
I am currently managing a new project within the framework of the Pavle Savić Programme: “VARIEGOMICS,” which is being implemented in cooperation with the team of Dr Mélisande Blein-Nicolas from Paris-Saclay University and the PAPPSO Centre of the INRAE Institute. During my visit to the French team last year, I had – apart from access to advanced equipment – the opportunity to exchange knowledge with experts who have amassed many years of experience in plant proteomics. The preliminary results obtained are promising and I will be staying at the PAPPSO Centre again this October, in order to conduct additional analyses. In order for us to extend our cooperation, we applied this March for a joint national project of the French Government and for a European project.
The significant experience I have received through the Pavle Savić Programme, coupled with the support of the administrative team and accompanying events, has enabled me to develop as a scientist, but also as a project leader, and to establish my own research group with which I’ve applied successfully to several international and national projects of the Science Fund.