Vesna Musani

Vesna Musani is a Senior Research Associate at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, Croatia, working within the Division of Molecular Medicine, Laboratory for Hereditary Cancer. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Zagreb (2008) and a BSc in Molecular Biology from the same institution (1999).

Dr. Musani's research focuses on:

• Cancer genetics and molecular mechanisms of tumor development
• The Hedgehog signaling pathway in various cancers
• Hereditary cancer syndromes, particularly BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations
• Ovarian and breast cancer genetics
• Gorlin syndrome and other genetic cancer predisposition syndromes

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on the Hedgehog-Gli signaling pathway across multiple cancer types including melanoma, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and head and neck cancers. She has made significant contributions to understanding how GLI transcription factors regulate target genes in cancer cells and how these pathways interact with other signaling mechanisms like MAPK. Her work often involves advanced molecular techniques including CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, RNA-seq, and ChIP-seq analyses.

Dr. Musani has contributed to numerous collaborative research projects and has been involved in several book chapters on breast cancer molecular biology.

She has mentored several graduate students, guiding doctoral and master's theses in molecular oncology and cancer genetics.