RBI scientist Dubravka Hršak, PhD, from the Institute for Marine and Environmental Research and engineer Maja Havriluk were awarded a US patent on February 9th 2010 for their discovery of a "Mixed bacterial culture for atrazine degradation". The patent describes a new mixed bacterial culture with specific properties that quickly and completely degrades atrazine and other s-triazite pesticides over a wide concentration range and at different temperatures.

At the recently held annual meeting of the Croatian Genetics Society, Snježana Jurić was awarded the prestigious "Željko Trgovčević" award for research excellence in the field of molecular biology and genetics. The award is granted annually to a young scientist by the Croatian Genetics Society and the RBI Institute for Molecular Biology.

A commemoration in honor of our dearly departed colleague, Professor Greta Pifat-Mrzljak, was held today at the Ruđer Bošković Institute. Together with many dignitaries and scientists the ceremony featured contributions from the General Director of the RBI, Danica Ramljak, PhD, the Rector of the University of Zagreb, Dr. Aleksa Bjeliš, the Director of the Institute of Biophysics and Nanosystem research in Austria, Professor Peter Laggner, the Austrian Ambassador to Croatia and Mr. Jan Kickert. Professor Robert Huber a Nobel Prize winner from the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry, attended the commemoration as well.

The official Croatian delegation, consisting of the Croatian Ambassador in Israel, Zorica Matković, the General Director of the RBI, Danica Ramljak, PhD, and the Director's Advisor for International Collaboration at the RBI, Mary Sopta, PhD, visited the Weizmann Institute in Israel today. To mark the occasion, the Croatian national flag was flown, full mast, alongside its Israeli counterpart.

At a recent meeting of the Scientific Council of the Plitvice Lakes National Park, a new concept of scientific projects and their application was presented. This included a discussion about priority areas of research. Chaired by the Minister of Science, Education and Sports, Radovan Fuchs, PhD, the conference was attended by a number of prominent scientists and experts, including the Director General of the Ruđer Bošković Institute, Danica Ramljak, PhD.

RBI Scientists Anamaria Brozović, PhD, Andreja Ambriović-Ristov, PhD, and Maja Osmak, PhD, from the Laboratory for Genotoxic Agents, Department of Molecular Biology have published a review article entitled The relationship between cisplatin-induced reactive oxygen species, glutathione, and BCL-2 and resistance to cisplatin (IF 7,204) in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology, which is one of the most respected journals in the field of toxicology.

Chemistry a European Journal is one of the leading journals in the field of basic multidisciplinary chemistry (IF 5,454). RBI organic chemists from the Laboratory for Supramolecular and Nucleoside Chemistry, Division of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry have published an article in this prestigious journal entitled Positionally isomeric Organic Gelators: Structure-Gelation Study, Racemic versus Enantiomeric Gelators, and Solvation Effects.

At the one-day business conference on intellectual property Intelektiv, which was held at the Sheraton Hotel, it was concluded that the Croatian system of intellectual property has developed to the highest international standards. The conference gathered nearly 150 participants from all over Croatia. The conference which included 14 lectures and two round table discussions discussed trends and future directions in the commercialization, management and protection of intellectual property, and valuable experiences were exchanged.

As a part of activities regarding the International Rare Disease Day (Feb 28) at the 'Tribine grada Zagreba' today was held a round table under the name Rare diseases in Croatia: On the threshold of European changes. At the roundtable, which brought together medical experts, representatives of associations and patients, Danica Ramljak, PhD, director of RBI participated as well. There were discussed problems which face people with the rear diseases in Croatia - from the science researchs to diagnosis, treatments and socialization.

RBI scientists Neda Slade, PhD, and Arijana Zorić, PhD, from the Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, Department of Molecular Medicine in collaboration with colleagues from the Medical Faculty at Innsbruck and the Medical School in Vienna published an article in the prestigious journal Oncogene. Their work is the result of successful cooperation on the Croatian-Austrian bilateral project 'The importance of dominant negative izoforms p73 for the sensitivity to chemo therapeutics'.