Dean Nižetić

Professor Dean Nižetić serves as Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology at the Blizard Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, a position held continuously since July 2001. From February 2014 to April 2020, he maintained a concurrent part-time appointment as Professor of Molecular Medicine at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

His academic credentials include an M.D. from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Medicine (1982) and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology with experimental work conducted at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biology in Tübingen, Germany. Postdoctoral training occurred at the ICRF Genome Analysis Department in London (1987-1994), followed by independent research leadership at the University of London's Centre for Applied Molecular Biology.

Nižetić's research revolutionized understanding of Down Syndrome pathogenesis through stem cell modeling, identifying BACE2 as an Alzheimer's disease suppressor gene and DYRK1A's role in accelerated ageing. His work bridges molecular genetics, neurodegeneration, and cancer biology using iPSC and cerebral organoid platforms to investigate gene dosage effects in trisomy 21.

Publication trends reveal an evolution from embryonic stem cell fate studies (2008) to cerebral organoid modeling of Alzheimer's disease (2021-2023), with consistent focus on DNA damage repair mechanisms, therapeutic target identification, and cross-disease implications for ageing-related pathologies. High-impact journals include Nature, Lancet, and Blood across oncology, neuroscience, and genetics domains.

No scientific awards are documented in the provided materials.

He actively supervises doctoral candidates including Gillian Gough and Yeap Yee Jie (NTU Singapore), Drazen Petrovic, and Ana Cindric (Zagreb University). Major funding includes the €12 million EU-FP6 “AnEUploidy” project, Wellcome Trust's “LonDownS Consortium”, Croatian Science Foundation's GlycoDown project, and a £3.8M Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award on synaptic dysfunction in Down Syndrome.

His research team at the Centre for Genomics and Child Health comprises postdoctoral scientists (Dr. Ana Muňiz-Garcia, Dr. Aoife Murray, Dr. Ivan Alić), Reader Dr. Jurgen Groet, and international visiting PhD students, operating within Queen Mary's Blizard Institute infrastructure.