Nikolina Nakic

Nikolina Nakić got her Master degree from Molecular Biology in the University of Zagreb. Her studies were supported by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports with a scholarship for excellent students. During her studies has received student training in the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Germany as well as the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England. Soon after graduation, she started working in the Institute of Ruđer Bošković in Zagreb as a Research Assistant. During that period she was awarded with the French Government Scholarship for a research visit at the Institut de Recherches Interdisciplinaires in Lille, France. In September 2010 she started her doctoral studies under the supervision of dr. Ferrer in the Programació Genòmica de Cèl•lules Beta i Diabetis, IDIBAPS in Barcelona, Spain.

Project:

Abnormalities in maternal metabolism, like maternal diabetes or maternal malnutrition, alter the supply of nutrients to the fetus. This may induce adaptations in fetal development that have lasting consequences for the adult offspring, even in subsequent generations (Heijmans et al, 2008; Matveyenko et al 2010; Vucetic et al, 2010). A growing body of literature indicates a role of epigenetic factors in this complex interplay between genes and the environment (Petronis, 2010; Heijmans et al, 2010; Ng et al, 2010). The objective of this study is to assess the interaction between sequence variation, environment and epigenetics in islets.