Tana Tandarić

Tana Tandarić is a Researcher at the Ruđer Bošković Institute within the Division of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, affiliated with the Lab for Computational Design and Synthesis of Functional Materials. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Zagreb (2021) and an MSc in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of Zagreb (2016). Her research focuses on theoretical and computational chemistry, particularly enzyme inhibition mechanisms, drug design, and reaction mechanistic studies.

Education:

• PhD in Chemistry (2016–2021): University of Zagreb (Supervisor: Dr. Robert Vianello)
• MSc in Medicinal Chemistry (2011–2016): University of Zagreb (Thesis: Chlorination of 5-fluorouracil)
• High School: XV. Gymnasium, Zagreb (2007–2011)

Research Interests: Tandarić’s work spans theoretical chemistry, organic synthesis, and medicinal applications. She specializes in computational modeling of enzyme-inhibitor interactions (e.g., monoamine oxidase B), drug design for neurodegenerative diseases, and eco-toxicological studies of pharmaceutical degradation products. Her recent projects include developing antiplasmodial agents through hybrid drug design and creating pH-sensitive fluorescent probes for biomolecular imaging.

Key Achievements:

• 2022 Award for Young Scientist in Medicinal Chemistry
• Austrian Academy Scholarship (2021)
• Ruđer Bošković Institute Paper Awards (2019–2020)
• Thiene Poster Award (2019)
• Dean’s Awards for Outstanding Research (2013–2015)

Teaching: Tandarić has instructed courses in Molecular and Statistical Mechanics at Uppsala University and General Chemistry at the University of Zagreb. She participates in academic editorial roles, co-editing conference proceedings like the 8th Mini Symposium of Medicinal Chemistry (2024).

Labs/Teams: Collaborates closely with Prof. Robert Vianello’s group on drug design and Prof. Valerije Vrček’s team on mechanistic studies of pharmaceutical degradation. Engages in international projects (e.g., Max Perutz Labs, Sorbonne University).