Roman Jerala

Roman Jerala serves as Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Ljubljana and heads the Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology at the National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He has held these positions since 2002 and 2010 respectively, while also directing the Synthetic Biology research area at Centre of Excellence EN-FIST since 2009.

• BSc in Chemistry, University of Ljubljana (1986)
• PhD in Chemistry, University of Ljubljana (1993)
• Postdoc, University of Virginia (1994-1995)

His research focuses on pioneering synthetic biology approaches including coiled-coil based protein origami, TLR4/TLR3 activation mechanisms, antimicrobial peptides, and DNA-based scaffold biosynthesis. His work bridges chemical biology, immunology, and nanotechnology to develop novel medical applications and understand fundamental biological processes.

Jerala has received numerous prestigious awards including EMBO membership, Slovenia's highest Zois Award, and multiple iGEM competition victories where he served as team leader. His research group consistently achieves international recognition in synthetic biology competitions.

• Coordinator: ERANET Bioorigami project (2014-2017)
• Partner: ERANET MediSurf project (2016-2019)
• Partner: Horizon 2020 MSCA Tollerant project (2015-2018)
• Member: COST actions CM1304, CM1306, CA16122

As director of the Synthetic Biology research area at EN-FIST Centre of Excellence, he leads interdisciplinary teams developing innovative approaches to medical applications of synthetic biology, with particular emphasis on information processing circuits in mammalian cells and designed bionanostructures.