Nikola Ojkic

Dr Nikola Ojkic is a Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, affiliated with the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences and the Centre for Molecular Cell Biology. His research focuses on understanding bacterial cell shape and size control mechanisms, antibiotic resistance strategies, and sporulation processes. He employs interdisciplinary approaches combining microbiology, biophysics, and computational modeling to investigate how cellular components like DNA, membranes, and ribosomes influence bacterial physiology under stress and antibiotic exposure.

Teaching: Dr Ojkic contributes to the Biomedical Sciences Joint Programme with Nanchang University, instructing Microbiology courses. His research group collaborates with Javier López-Garrido (Max Planck Institute) on sporulation studies and has secured a £562,114 BBSRC grant (2024-2027) exploring antibiotic resistance linked to cell envelope changes.

Research Interests: Key areas include bacterial resource allocation trade-offs, antibiotic cytological profiling, and morphological adaptations during stress. The group's work bridges basic science and applied research, aiming to develop novel antibacterial strategies.

Grants & Collaborations: Active funding includes BBSRC support for antibiotic resistance studies. Collaborative projects involve advanced imaging and mathematical modeling to dissect cellular response mechanisms to environmental challenges.

Labs/Teams: Leads a multidisciplinary team at Queen Mary, including postdoctoral researcher Dr Tymoteusz Miara, and maintains international partnerships for sporulation research.