People

Meet the people behind our science.
Matjaž Barborič

Principle Investigator

Matjaž received his PhD in Molecular Biology from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and did his graduate work and postdoctoral training on controlling Pol II elongation with 7SK snRNP and P-TEFb with B. Matija Peterlin at University of California, San Francisco, USA. Read more on his work here. In his free time, he is doing the laundry.

E-mail: matjaz.barboric@helsinki.fi

Monika Mačáková

Doctoral Researcher

Doctoral Programme in Integrative Life Science

Monika received her Master's degree in Biotechnology from the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. Her work on engineering yeasts for production of high value chemicals brought her to study transcription and gene regulation. Her current research focuses on combinatorial targeting of transcriptional CDKs in cancer and the significance of RNA Pol II elongation factor for SARS-CoV-2 replication. When she is not weighing which mistery to solve in the lab, she can be spotted lifting weights in the gym. 

E-mail: monika.macakova@helsinki.fi

Tina Lenasi

Senior Researcher

Tina received her PhD in Molecular Biology from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and did her postdoctoral training on the transcriptional form of HIV-1 latency with B. Matija Peterlin at University of California, San Francisco, USA. Her research focuses on understanding how local topology of Pol II transcription machinery couples gene transcription with maturation of nascent RNA. In her free time, she practices atheism.

E-mail: valentina.lenasi@helsinki.fi

This Could Be You

Doctoral Researcher

Programme in Biomedicine

E-mail: this.could.be.you@helsinki.fi

Barborič Lab Alumni
  • Ashwini Kumar, Ph.D. (has graduated at FIMM, Helsinki, Finland)
  • Kingsley Mokube Ekumi, M.Sc.
  • Petra Kukanja, M.Sc. (now a doctoral student in Gonçalo Castelo-Branco lab at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden)
  • Alexandre JC Quaresma, Ph.D. (now at State University of Campinas - Unicamp, Brazil)
  • Neja Sirc, M.Sc. (now a doctoral researcher in Hematology Research Unit at Univeristy of Helsinki, Finland)
  • Andrii Bugai, Ph.D. (now a postdoctoral fellow in Torben H. Jensen lab at Aarhus University, Denmark)
  • Zhijia Wang, Ph.D.