Center for Biosystems

Project goal: This project aims to involve farmers and youth as citizen scientists, through relevant agricultural organizations and (pre)school institutions, to jointly monitor soil health indicators on the territory of Vojvodina during the period 2024-2025.
About the project: Healthy soils are the foundation of sustainable agriculture. In Serbia, the lack of comprehensive soil monitoring is a critical issue. Citizen science initiatives can bridge this gap by monitoring key soil indicators on a significant temporal and spatial scale. As stewards of land and soil sustainability, farmers and youth offer a great potential to enhance soil connectivity on individual and societal levels. This project aims to engage respective citizen scientist groups, through agricultural organizations and (pre)schools, to jointly monitor selected relevant soil health indicators on the territory of Vojvodina Province. Participants will receive group-tailored training and support from research scientists over two years. Following data collection, validation, and analysis, results will be communicated back to participants to draw conclusions and cultivate awareness of the importance of soil health.

Jelena Jović

Aleksandar Ivezić completed his PhD at the Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad. His previous engagement was at the Forecasting and Warning Service in Plant Protection. In his professional career, he was mostly focused on monitoring of agricultural pests and eco-friendly methods of pest control. He is primarily a biocontrol specialist and his interest is directed to the community of beneficial insects present on the territory of Serbia and neighboring countries. The main goal of his work is exploring the possibilities of applying different species of beneficial insect in agricultural practice as an alternative to the agrochemicals.

Aleksandar Ivezić

Tijana Barošević works as a senior expert associate of the Centre for innovation and Business Development at BioSense Institute. Tijana received her PhD degree in biotechnical sciences at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad in June 2021 on the subject “Infection intensity of Aspergillus ear rot in maize hybrids”. The scientific discipline of the doctoral dissertation is phytopathology. Her research work was focused on plant pathology, mycotoxins, plant resistance mechanisms, plant/pathogen/environment interactions and food safety. She has experience in organizing field trials and working in the laboratory. She worked in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia in the agricultural sector, where she gained significant experience in cooperation with business entities. Currently, within the BioSense Institute, her duties include preparation and implementation of international and national projects, event organization and cooperation with the economy.

Tijana Barošević

Jelena Jović is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Biosystems within the BioSense Institute. During her PhD research on the characterisation of novel pharmaceutical formulations of traditional antidiabetic agents at the Medical faculty, University of Novi Sad, she gained experience in performing pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies. Currently, her second PhD thesis, conducted at the Technical University of Munich, is pending submission. There, her research was focused on investigating the role of intestinal microbiota in inflamatory bowel disease pathogenesis, using both traditional microbiological techniques and next generation sequencing (NGS) technology. At the BioSense Institute, her research interests are directed towards soil microbiome and its applications in sustainable agriculture.

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Sanja Brdar is a senior researcher and head of the Centre for Information Technologies at BioSense Institute. She received a PhD degree from the University of Novi Sad in 2016. Prior to starting her PhD studies, she spent two years working in the software industry with a major in databases design and development. In 2010 she was awarded a ten-month Basileus fellowship for joining the Bioinformatics Laboratory at University of Ljubljana which set the foundations for the PhD thesis on data/knowledge fusion in bioinformatics. Currently, she is actively involved in many projects including H2020 Antares, Dragon, Bestmap and Flexigrobots and teaches two master level courses at Faculty of Sciences. Her research interests include machine learning, explainable AI and bioinformatics. She works on ensemble methods, data fusion, clustering, and predictive modelling with applications in biology, agriculture, environmental sciences and health. She enjoys participating in worldwide data science challenges and with the team of researchers made significant results: placed third in Nokia Mobile Data Challenge (2012), finalist of Orange, France, Data for Development Challenge (2013), finalist/winner/third place of Syngenta Crop Challenge (2016, 2017, 2019) and finalist of UNDP Depopulation challenge (2020).

Sanja Brdar

Andrea Simeon obtained a BSc and a MSc degree in Applied Mathematics at the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad, Department of Mathematics and Informatics, in 2018 and 2020 respectively. Her undergraduate studies were mainly oriented towards the finances, but she changes the course of her education and enters the master program in English, Applied mathematics – Data Science. During the studies she participated with a fellow in the medic challenge organized by Philip Morris Company “Metagenomics diagnosis for inflammatory bowel disease challenge” and they ranked 7th. This challenge was an inspiration for her to continue working on similar problems. In 2020 she enters PhD studies in Informatics at the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad. Currently, she works as a Junior Research Assistant at the BioSense Institute with main research interests in the analysis of microbiome data and exploration of statistical and machine learning techniques in microbiome studies.

Andrea Simeon

Dr Nataša Ljubičić (F) Research associate, received the Ph.D. degrees from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, in Serbia in the field of Genetics and Plant Breeding. She holds her Master thesis with the name: ”Multivariate analysis of wheat genotypes grown on meliorated Solonjec soil”, where she investigated different plant responses through genotype/environment interaction caused by different types of soil melioration. Dr Nataša Ljubičić is a Research associate at BioSense Institute, University of Novi Sad, Serbia. Her research interests include using and implementing innovative and smart technology in agricultural and environmental investigations, following genotype/environment interaction, plant response within different mineral nutrition, nutrition, plant stress, phenotypic variability of the plant traits of the agricultural crops. Her investigation involved research from plant scale to large-scale evaluation with the main aim to improve agricultural production. Dr Ljubičić is a member of the EUCARPIA - European Association for Research on Plant Breeding and was involved in several Serbian national projects. She is the author and co-author of more than 50 journal and conference papers on international and national levels and 2 Technical solutions with total citations: 81; h-index: 6 (Google Scholar).

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Nataša Ljubičić

Dr Ljiljana Šašič Zorić is a senior researcher at the BioSense Institute with expertise in genetics. Ljiljana received PhD degree in biology in 2018 from Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad. She is particularly oriented on application of mitochondrial and nuclear sequence based molecular markers in genetic analyses, identification and delimitation of European insect species. Since 2016, she has been collaborating with DNA laboratory of Finnish museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki where she gained additional experience in molecular taxonomy of hoverflies. In 2017, her research concerning influence of endosymbiotic bacteria on evolutionary dynamic of mitochondrial genes was granted by the Entomological Society of Helsinki and the Societas pro Fauna et Flora Fennica. Her project "Genomic approach in hoverfly biodiversity assessment - next-generation DNA barcoding" was awarded the 100-year anniversary grant of the Entomological Society of Helsinki in 2019. Ljiljana is informal member of the genetic research team at Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, Novi Sad, as well as coordinator of research activities at the Valentis Center for Behavioral Research, Bačka Palanka.

Ljiljana Šašić Zorić

Dr Dušanka Vujanović is a Research Associate at the BioSense Institute with a PhD in ecology in 2020 from Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad. Her research focuses on plant ecology, invasive plants and ecological interactions (plant-herbivore, plant-soil and plant-insect interactions).

Dušanka Vujanović

Dr Andrijana Andrić is a Research associate in the field of Biology within the Centre for Biosystems at the BioSense Institute. She has received BSc (2006), MSc (2007), and PhD (2015) degrees in Biology, from the Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad. Her research focus is study of insect pollinators and their host plants, using various approaches in order to obtain data on their biology and ecology. Her current research interests are primarily directed towards phytophagous hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae), their underexplored developmental stages and complex plant-insect relationships.

Andrijana Andric

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National

Soil Health Guards – Cultivating Soil Connectivity: Empowering Farmers and Youth Community as Citizen Scientists to Monitor Soil Health and Biodiversity

Centar za Biosisteme

Cilj projekta: Cilj ovog projekta je da se poljoprivrednici i omladina kao građani naučnici, preko relevantnih poljoprivrednih organizacija i (pred)školskih ustanova, uključe u zajedničko praćenje pokazatelja zdravlja zemljišta na teritoriji Vojvodine u periodu 2024-2025.
O projektu: Zdrava zemljišta su temelj održive poljoprivrede. U Srbiji je nedostatak sveobuhvatnog praćenja zemljišta kritično pitanje. Građanske naučne inicijative mogu premostiti ovaj jaz praćenjem ključnih indikatora zemljišta na značajnom vremenskom i prostornom nivou. Poljoprivrednici i mladi, kao čuvari održivosti zemljišta i zemljišta, nude veliki potencijal za poboljšanje povezanosti tla na individualnom i društvenom nivou. Ovaj projekat ima za cilj da angažuje odgovarajuće grupe građana-naučnika, preko poljoprivrednih organizacija i (pred)školskih ustanova, da zajednički prate odabrane relevantne pokazatelje zdravlja zemljišta na teritoriji Vojvodine. Na taj način će učesnici tokom dve godine dobiti obuku prilagođenu grupi i podršku naučnika-istraživača. Nakon prikupljanja podataka, validacije i analize, rezultati će biti dostavljeni učesnicima kako bi zajedno doneli zaključke i kultivisali svest o važnosti zdravlja zemljišta.

Aleksandar Ivezić doktorirao je na Odseku za entomologiju Poljoprivrednog fakulteta Univerziteta u Novom Sadu. Njegov prethodni angažman bio je u Službi prognoze i upozorenja u zaštiti bilja. U profesionalnoj karijeri najviše je bio fokusiran na praćenje poljoprivrednih štetočina i ekološki prihvatljive metode suzbijanja štetočina. On je prvenstveno specijalista za biokontrolu i njegovo interesovanje je usmereno na zajednicu korisnih insekata prisutnih na teritoriji Srbije i susednih zemalja. Osnovni cilj njegovog rada je istraživanje mogućnosti primene različitih vrsta korisnih insekata u poljoprivrednoj praksi kao alternative agrohemikalijama.

Tijana Barošević radi kao stariji stručni saradnik u Centru za inovacije i razvoj poslovanja u okviru Instituta BioSens. Doktorirala je na Poljoprivrednom fakultetu, Univerziteta u Novom Sadu u oblasti Biotehničkih nauka u junu 2021. godine na temu „Intenzitet infekcije aspergilozne truleži klipa na hibridima kukuruza. Naučna disciplina doktorske disertacije je fitopatologija. Njen istraživački rad bio je usmeren na patologiju biljaka, mikotoksine, mehanizme otpornosti biljaka, procenu interakcija biljka/patogen/životna sredina i bezbednost hrane. Tijana ima iskustva u organizovanju ogleda u polju, kao i u radu u laboratoriji. Radila je u Privrednoj komori Srbije u sektoru za poljoprivredu gde je stekla značajno iskustvo u saradnji sa privrednim subjektima. Trenutno, u okviru Instituta BioSens, njene dužnosti obuhvataju pripremu i implementaciju međunarodnih i domaćih projekata, organizaciju događaja i saradnju sa privredom.

Jelena Jović je zaposlena na poziciji naučnog saradnika Centra za biosisteme na Institutu BioSens. Doktorirala je na Medicinskom fakultetu, na Univerzitetu u Novom Sadu na temu upotrebe novih farmaceutsko-tehnoloških formulacija tradicionalnih lekova u terapiji dijabetesa, gde je stekla iskustvo u oblastima farmakokinetike i farmakodinamike. Trenutno je u procedure pisanja doktorske disertacije na Tehničkom univerzitetu u Minhenu, gde joj je fokus istraživanja bio na izučavanju uloge mikroorganizama digestivnog trakta u patogenezi inflamatornih bolesti creva, korišćenjem klasičnih mikrobioloških metoda, kao i tehnologije sekvenciranja nove generacije (NGS). Istraživanja na BioSens Institutu su usmerena ka oblasti ekologije mikroorganizama u zemljištu i primeni poljoprivrednih tehnika zasnovanih na interakcijama biljaka i mikrobioma u održivoj poljoprivredi.

Dr Sanja Brdar je naučni saradnik i rukovodilac Centra za informacione tehnologije na Institutu BioSense. Doktorirala je na Univerzitetu u Novom Sadu 2016. Pre početka doktorata provela je dve godine u softverskoj kompaniji u timu za razvoj baza podataka. Desetomesečnu Basileus stipendiju za istražvački boravak u Laboratoriji za bioinformatiku na Univerzitetu u Ljubljani dobila je 2010. godine i time postavila osnove za doktorat u oblasti fuzije podataka/znanja u bioinformatici. Aktivno je uključena u mnoge projekte, uključujući H2020 Antares, Dragon, Bestmap i Flekigrobots i predavač je na dva master predmeta na Prirodno-matematičkom fakultetu, smer Nauka o podacima. Njena istraživačka interesovanja uključuju mašinsko učenje, objašnjivu veštačku inteligenciju i bioinformatiku. Radi na ansambalskim metodama, fuziji podataka, klasterizaciji i prediktivnom modelovanju sa primenom u biologiji, poljoprivredi, životnoj sredini i javnom zdravlju. Učesnica je na svetskim izazovima iz nauke o podacima i sa timom istraživača postigla je značajne rezultate: treće mesto na Nokia Mobile Data Challenge (2012), finalista Orange France, Data for Development Challenge (2013), finalista / pobednik / treće mesto na Singenta Crop Challenge (2016, 2017, 2019) i finalista UNDP izazova depopulacije Srbije (2020).

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Andrea Simeon je završila osnovne i master studije u oblasti Primenjene matematike na Prirodno-matematičkom fakultetu u Novom Sadu, na Departmanu za matematiku i informatiku, redom 2018. i 2020. godine. Njene osnovne studije su bile pretežno orijentisane ka finasijama, ali master studije ne nastavlja u tom pravcu nego upisuje program na engleskom jeziku, Nauka o podacima. Tokom studija je zajedno sa kolegom učestvovala na takmičenju organizovanom od strane Filip Moris kompanije, “Metagenomics diagnosis for inflammatory bowel disease challenge” na kojem su osvojili 7. mesto. Ovo takmičenje je poslužilo kao inspiracija za dalji rad na temu mikrobiom podataka. S tim ciljem, 2020. godine upisuje doktorske studije Infromatike na Prirodno-matematičkom fakultetu u Novom Sadu. Trenutno je zaposlena u BioSense Institutu kao istraživač-priprevnik sa temom za istraživanje u oblasti analize mikrobiom podataka i primene statističkih tehnika kao i mašinskog učenja u mikrobiom studijama.

Dr Nataša Ljubičić, naučni saradnik, doktorirala je na Poljoprivrednom fakultetu, u Novom Sadu u oblasti Biotehničkih nauka i užoj naučnoj oblasti Genetika i oplemenjivanje biljaka. Magistarsku tezu pod nazivom: ”Multivarijaciona analiza genotipova pšenice gajenih na meliorisanom solonjecu”, kao i diplomski rad iz predmeta Pedologija, odbranila je na Poljoprivrednom fakultetu, u Novom Sadu. Dr Nataša Ljubičić je angažovana u svojstvu naučnog saradnika u okviru Centra za biosisteme, Instituta BioSens u Novom Sadu. Oblast istraživanja obuhvata primenu inovativne i pametne tehnologije u službi povećanja prinosa glavnih poljoprivrenih kultura i pre svega unapređenja poljoprivredne proizvodnje. Istraživanja obuhvataju praćenje fenotipske stabilnosti osobina različitih genotipova pšenice, kukuruza i drugih poljoprivrednih kultura u različitim agroekološkim uslovima, kao i procenu interakcije genotip/spoljna sredina kao različit odgovor biljke na različite uslove sredine. U istraživanjima, fenotipska varijabilnost je praćena merenjem spektralnog odziva biljaka, gde se primenom aktivnih i pasivnih senzora izračunava više od 40 različitih vegetacionih, tj. spektralnih indeksa. Ovakvo udruživanje podataka doprinosi razvoju metoda za procenu stanja biljaka pre vidljivih simptoma i daje smernicu za unapređenje tehnologije proizvodnje, a pre svega maksimalnom iskorišćavanju rodnosti ispitivanih genotipova za područja istih ili sličnih agroekoloških uslova. Pored odabira adekvatnih vegetacionih indeksa, definišu se mere koje pogoduju ili eventualno štete proizvodnji useva za određene lokalitete. Dr Nataša Ljubičić je u dosadašnjem radu bila angažovana u okviru nekoliko projekata Ministarstvo prosvete, nauke i tehnološkog razvoja Republike Srbije, učesnik u međunarodnim recenzijama, kao i član udruženja EUCARPIA (European Association for Research on Plant Breeding). Dr Nataša Ljubičić je u dosadašnjem naučnoistraživačkom radu, kao autor ili koautor, objavila preko 50 naučnih radova u međunarodnim i nacionalnim časopisima koje prema bazi Google Scholar, imaju preko 80 citata u međunarodnim čaopisima i vrednost 6 za Hiršov indeks.

Dr Ljiljana Šašič Zorić je istraživač na BioSense Institutu sa stručnim znanjem u oblasti genetike. Ljiljana je doktorirala 2018. godine na Departmanu za biologiju i ekologiju, na Prirodno-matematičkom fakultetu Univerziteta u Novom Sadu. Posebno je orijentisana na primenu sekvenci mitohondrijalnih i nuklearnih molekularnih markera u genetičkim analizama, identifikaciji i razgraničavanju Evropskih vrsta insekata. Od 2016. godine sarađuje sa DNK laboratorijom Finskog Prirodnjačkog muzeja, Univerziteta u Helsinkiju, gde je stekla dodatno iskustvo u molekularnoj taksonomiji osolikih muva. Tokom 2017. godine, njeno istraživanje o uticaju endosimbiotskih bakterija na evolucionu dinamiku mitohondrijalnih gena stipendirano je od strane Entomološkog društva u Helsinkiju i Društva za zaštitutu flore i faune Finske. Njen projekat „Genomski pristup u proceni biodiverziteta osolikih muva - DNK barkoding nove generacije“ nagrađen je stogodišnjom jubilarnom stipendijom Entomološkog društva iz Helsinkija za 2019. godinu. Ljiljana je neformalni član tima za genetička istraživanja na Departmanu za biologiju i ekologiju, Prirodno-matematičkog fakulteta u Novom Sadu, kao i koordinator istraživačkih aktivnosti u Centru za bihejvioralna istraživanja Valentis, Bačka Palanka.

Dr Dušanka Vujanović je naučni saradnik iz oblasti Ekologije u okviru Centra za Biosisteme, Instituta Biosens. Njeno istraživanje je iz oblasti ekologije biljaka, invazivnih biljnih vrsta i ekoloških interakcija (biljke-biljojedi, biljke-zemljište i biljke-insekti).

Dr Andrijana Andrić zaposlena je u Centru za biosisteme Instituta BioSens, u zvanju Naučni saradnik u oblasti prirodno-matematičkih nauka – biologija. Završila je studije na Departmanu za biologiju i ekologiju, Prirodno-matematičkog fakulteta, Univerziteta u Novom Sadu; Diplomirani biolog je od 2006. godine, Diplomirani biolog – master od 2007. i Doktor nauka – biološke nauke od 2015. godine. Prevashodno je usmerena ka istraživanju insekata oprašivača i njihovih biljaka domaćina, koristeći različte metode u cilju dobijanja podataka o njihovoj biologiji i ekologiji. Posebno je zainteresovana za nedovoljno istražene razvojne stadijume biljojedih osolikih muva (Diptera: Syrphidae) i kompleksne odnose ovih insekata i biljaka.

Andrijana Andrić

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Nacionalni

Čuvari zdravlja zemljišta – Negovanje povezanosti zemljišta: Osnaživanje poljoprivrednika i omladinske zajednice kao građanskih naučnika da nadgledaju zdravlje zemljišta i biodiverzitet

Soil Health Guards – Cultivating Soil Connectivity: Empowering Farmers and Youth Community as Citizen Scientists to Monitor Soil Health and Biodiversity

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