Blanka Tariba Lovaković

Division of Toxicology

Senior Scientific Associate

Place and date of birth

Rijeka, 27 July 1985

Education

  • 2010 – 2015 University of Zagreb, Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry; Disertation: Essential and toxic metals, antioxidative enzymes and metallothionein in men with testicular or prostate cancer (mentors: Alica Pizent, PhD; Marija Gamulin, PhD, MD)
  • 2003 – 2009 University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry; Thesis: Trace analysis of triazine, chloracetamide and phenylurea-herbicides in water by solid-phase extraction and liquid chromatography (mentor: Vlasta Drevenkar, PhD)

Work Experience

  • 2022 – Senior Scientific Associate, Division of Toxicology, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb
  • 2017 – 2022 Scientific Associate, Analytical Toxicology and Mineral Metabolism Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb
  • 2015 – 2017 Postdoctoral researcher, Analytical Toxicology and Mineral Metabolism Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb
  • 2009 – 2015 Assistant, Analytical Toxicology and Mineral Metabolism Unit, Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb

Fields of interest

Application of gas and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in the analysis of organic pollutants; development and validation of analytical methods for determining traces of organic pollutants and their degradation products in biological and environmental samples; risk assessment of health effects; human biomonitoring

  • 2024 – 2027 Principal Investigator Effects of exposure to plasticizers and microplastics on men’s reproductive health (HrZZ)
  • 2024 – 2027 Associate researcher within the scientific project Assessment of Efficacy and Toxicity of Biologically Active Substances (EU – NextGenerationEU, PI: Nikolina Maček Hrvat, PhD)
  • 2020 – 2023 Associate researcher within the project Development of a functional drink in sustainable packaging – JamINNO+ (KK.01.2.1.02.0305)
  • 2019 – 2021 Principal Investigator Evaluation of reproductive toxicity of commonly used pesticides followed by chronic low-dose exposure in vivo (institutional project)
  • 2018 – 2022 Associate researcher within the scientific project Application of Nanobiotechnology for Nutritional Supplementation with Selenium – NutriNTENSe (HrZZ, PI: Tomislav Vinković, PhD)
  • 2017 – 2021 Associate researcher within the scientific project Assessment of daily exposure to metals and maternal individual susceptibility as factors of developmental origins of health and disease – METALORIGINS (HrZZ, PI: Martina Piasek, PhD)
  • 2016 – 2018 Associate researcher within the scientific project Organic Pollutants in Environment – Markers and Biomarkers of Toxicity – OPENTOX (HrZZ, PI: Davor Želježić, PhD)
  • 2015 – 2016 Associate researcher within the Croatian-German bilateral project Diabetes mellitus type 2 in the Croatian population after chronic exposure to arsenic (PIs: I. Vinković Vrček, PhD; B. Michalke, PhD)
  • 2009 – 2014 Associate researcher within the scientific project Reproductive health effects of toxic and essential metals in men (Ministry of science, education and sports of the Republic of Croatia, PI: Alica Pizent, PhD)

Additional training

  • 2021 Scientific training in the Associated Laboratory UCIBIO@REQUIMTE, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Porto, within the COST action CliniMARK
  • 2015/2016 Scientific training at Helmholz Zentrum München Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Gesundheit and Umwelt, Research Unit Analytical BioGeoChemistry, Germany (within the Croatian-German bilateral project Diabetes mellitus type 2 in the Croatian population after chronic exposure to arsenic (PIs: I. Vinković Vrček, PhD; B. Michalke, PhD))

Courses and workshops

  • 2024 Biostatistics in R, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2019 CliniMARK – Approaches for Biomarker Discovery and Validation, COST Summer School on Biomarkers, Spetses, Greece
  • 2017 LC-QTOF Workshop, Rijeka, Croatia
  • 2017 Validation of analytical methods, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2016 Basic Proteomics Course, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2016 Clinical and applied proteomics Workshop, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2016 EUROTOX Principles of Toxicology Course, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2015 InnoMol Molecular Interactions Workshop, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2014 Advanced School of Mass Spectrometry, Belgrade, Srbija
  • 2014 InnoMol Proteomics Workshop, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2013 Course in Cancer risk assessment, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 2011 EUROTOX Basic Toxicology Course, Belgrade, Serbia

Awards

  • 2024 The annual award of the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health (IMROH) for a scientific paper with the largest number of citations published in journal Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2022 The annual award of the IMROH for at least 3 original scientific papers published in 2021 on of which the employee of the Institute is the first author, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2021 The annual award of the IMROH to a young researcher for the largest number of papers published in 2020, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2021 Scholarship obtained by COST action CA16113 – CliniMARK for a study stay in an international scientific institution (Porto, Portugal)
  • 2019 The annual award of the IMROH for a scientific paper with the largest number of citations published in journal Archives of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2019 Scholarship obtained by COST action CA16113 – CliniMARK for attending COST summer school on biomarkers, Spetses, Greece
  • 2018 The annual award of the IMROH to a young researcher for the largest number of papers published in 2017, Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2015 Award for Research Excellence presented by the organizers of the XI Conference of the International Society for Trace Element Research in Humans (ISTERH) (Dubrovnik, Croatia) to honour the scientific contribution at the ISTERH 2015

Select Publications

  1. Tariba B, Živković T, Filipović Marijić V, Erk M, Gamulin M, Pizent A. Does the Serum Metallothionein Level Reflect the Stage of Testicular Germ Cell Tumor? Archives of medical research 47 (2016);232-235.
  2. Želježić D, Mladinić M, Žunec S, Lucić Vrdoljak A, Kašuba V, Tariba B, Živković T, Marjanović AM, Pavičić I, Milić M, Rozgaj R, Kopjar N. Cytotoxic, genotoxic and biochemical markers of insecticide toxicity evaluated in human peripheral blood lymphocytes and an HepG2 cell line. Food and chemical toxicology 96(2016);90-106.
  3. Žunec S, Kašuba V, Pavičić I, Marjanović AM, Tariba B, Milić M, Kopjar N, Pizent A, Lucić Vrdoljak A, Rozgaj R, Želježić D. Assessment of oxidative stress responses and the cytotoxic and genotoxic potential of the herbicide tembotrione in HepG2 cells. Food and Chemical Toxicology 94(2016);64-74.
  4. Tariba B, Živković T, Krasnići N, Filipović Marijić V, Erk M, Gamulin M, Grgić M, Pizent A. Serum metallothionein in patients with testicular cancer. Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology 75(2015);813-820.
  5. Živković T, Tariba B, Pizent A. Multielement analysis of human seminal plasma by octopole reaction cell ICP-MS. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry 29(2014);2114-2126.
  6. Babić Ž, Tariba B, Kovačić J, Varnai VM, Pizent A, Macan J. Relevance of serum copper elevation induced by oral contraceptives: a meta-analysis. Contraception 87(2013);790-800.

Memberships

  • Croatian Chemical Society
  • Croatian Society of Toxicology
  • International Society for Trace Element Research in Humans

List of publications