Jelena Šarac

Dr. Jelena Šarac is an Assistant Professor in Natural Sciences (Biology) at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, and a Senior Research Associate at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia. She currently leads international collaborations as Assistant Director for International Collaboration (2025), heads the Laboratory for Molecular Bioanthropology, and contributes to projects focused on genetic epidemiology, air quality, and human health.

• Education:
  • PhD in Natural Sciences (Biology, Genetics, Evolution, and Phylogeny), University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science (2015)
  • Study of Anthropology and German Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb (2006)

Her research spans molecular anthropology, population genetics, biomedicine, and nutrigenetics. She has led projects such as "Tracing the Slavic origins of Croatians using ancient genomes" (Austrian Science Foundation, 2021–2022) and "Evidence-driven improvement of indoor air quality – EDIAQI" (HORIZON Europe, 2022–2026). She also participated in the "Draft Proposal of the Action Plan for the Prevention of Obesity" (2021) for the Croatian Ministry of Health.

Scientific awards and fellowships include recognition at international conferences and fellowships from the European Society for the Study of Obesity, European Society for Human Genetics, and the ECOGENE program. She has led teams in EU-funded projects like HORIZON 2020's unCoVer (2020–2022) and NIH's integrated GWAS/EWAS study (2016–2017).

Teaching experience includes roles at the University of Rijeka (2024) and University of Zagreb (2015–2024) in courses such as "Population Genetics" and "Molecular Archaeogenetics."

Professional memberships include the European Anthropological Association, Croatian Society of Human Genetics, and the International Society for Applied Biological Sciences (ISABS).