Biochemistry and Organic Analytical Chemistry Unit

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Pesticide and other organic compound analysis in environmental and biological samples, waste materials and other matrices. Determination of human exposure to pesticides and associated compounds.

Specific chemical analysis:

• organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls in air, suspended particulate matter, surface, ground, drinking and waste waters, soil/sediments, vegetation (leaves and coniferous trees), fat tissue, milk and blood;
• triazine pesticides and products of their decomposition in surface, ground, drinking and waste waters, soil and sediments;
• organophosphorus pesticides, urea-herbicides, chlorophenols and other pesticide compounds in surface, ground, drinking and waste waters;
• polychlorinated biphenyls in oil derivatives, waste oils and similar waste materials;
• original compounds and characteristic metabolites in human milk, blood and urine as indicators of human exposure to organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls, organophosphorus and triazine pesticides; chlorophenols and compounds that metabolise into chlorophenols.

Specific enzyme analyses:

• activity of acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase in human blood, and in animal blood and tissue;
• determination of butyrylcholinesterase variants (pseudocholinesterase phenotyping) in human serum; determination of specific inhibition numbers (dibucaine number (DN), fluoride number (FN) and Ro number (RN));
• presence of cholinesterase inhibitors in water.

RESEARCH PROJECTS CURRENTLY UNDER WAY:

Croatian Science Foundation

• Project 7683: Analysis of Butyrylcholinesterase Interactions with Novel Inhibitors and Reactivators – AnalyseBChE, Head of Project: Zrinka Kovarik.
• Project 7260: Molecular mechanisms underlying the toxicity of antidotes and potential drugs – CellToxTargets, Head of Project: Maja Katalinić
• Project 6713: Development, validation and application of analytical methods for PBDE determination – DeValApp, Head of Project: Darija Klinčić

Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts

• Cell Response to Exposure to Chlorinated Bispyridinium Compounds, Head of Project: Antonio Zandona

International projects

• MONET (MOnitoring NEtwork for determination of POPs in ambient air using the polyurethane foam passive sampler), funded by RECETOX (Research Centre for Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic), Heads of Project: Petra Pribylova (in the Czech Republic) and Snježana Herceg Romanić (in Croatia).
• Persistent organochlorine compounds in human milk and their potential effect on the level of primary DNA damage in human cells, Ministry of Science and Education, Croatian-Serbian bilateral cooperation, 2019-2020, Head of Project in Croatia: Snježana Herceg Romanić

Institutional funding

• Persistent organic pollutants – estimate of effects on the environment and the stability of human genetic material, institutional funding of research, 2018-2020, Head of Project: Snježana Herceg Romanić