Dunja Simicic

Dunja Simicic obtained her Bachelor degree at the Faculty of Science in Engineering Physics in 2015 and her Master’s degree in Biophysics at the University of Split, Croatia in 2017.

She completed her Master project at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the Laboratory of Physics of Complex Matter, after which she became an EPFL Physics PhD candidate in the Laboratory of Functional and Metabolic Imaging and CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging in 2017 under the supervision of Dr. Cristina Cudalbu and Prof. Rolf Gruetter. Her thesis research aimed on developing new acquisition and quantification techniques for in vivo proton and phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy and metabolic imaging. Her research also focused on studying chronic hepatic encephalopathy and brain macromolecules. 

She defended her PhD thesis in 2022, and continued to pursue her research interests as a CIBM research staff till 2023. In 2023 Dunja became a  Postdoctoral Fellow  at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Diffusion of brain metabolites highlights altered brain microstructure in type C hepatic encephalopathy: a 9.4 T preliminary study

J. Mosso; G. Briand; K. Pierzchala; D. Simicic; A. Sierra et al. 

Frontiers In Neuroscience. 2024-03-20. Vol. 18, p. 1344076. DOI : 10.3389/fnins.2024.1344076.

Inhibition of urease-mediated ammonia production by 2-octynohydroxamic acid in hepatic encephalopathy

D. Evstafeva; F. Ilievski; Y. Bao; Z. Luo; B. Abramovic et al. 

Nature Communications. 2024-03-12. Vol. 15, num. 1, p. 2226. DOI : 10.1038/s41467-024-46481-8.

Diffusion-weighted SPECIAL improves the detection of J-coupled metabolites at ultrahigh magnetic field

J. Mosso; D. Simicic; B. Lanz; R. Gruetter; C. Cudalbu 

Magnetic Resonance In Medicine. 2023-09-28. DOI : 10.1002/mrm.29805.

New Insights Into Brain Energy Metabolism in Type C Hepatic Encephalopathy: A Dual 18F-FDG PET and 9.4T 1H MRS Preclinical Study

J. Mosso; T. Yin; C. Poitry-Yamate; D. Simicic; M. Lepore et al. 

2023-09-01. 20th Symposium of the International-Society-for-Hepatic-Encephalopathy-and-Nitrogen-Metabolism, Bad Zwischenahn, GERMANY, SEP 27-29, 2023. p. S12-S12. DOI : 10.14309/01.ajg.0000948348.20966.21.

Neurometabolic profiles of bile duct ligated rats after the treatment with an urease inhibitor – 1H MRS dataset

D. Evstafeva; J-C. Leroux; C. R. Cudalbu; D. Simicic 

2023.

Evaluation of a Hydroxamate-Based Urease Inhibitor in a Rodent Model of Hepatic Encephalopathy

D. Evstafeva; F. Ilievski; Y. Bao; Z. Luo; B. Abramovic et al. 

2023-09-01. 20th Symposium of the International-Society-for-Hepatic-Encephalopathy-and-Nitrogen-Metabolism, Bad Zwischenahn, GERMANY, SEP 27-29, 2023. p. S30-S31. DOI : 10.14309/01.ajg.0000948468.55577.45.

Brain Regional Differences in the Developing Brain Using an Animal Model of Type C Hepatic Encephalopathy

D. Simicic; K. Pierzchala; O. Braissant; C. Toso; G. Oldani et al. 

2023-09-01. 20th Symposium of the International-Society-for-Hepatic-Encephalopathy-and-Nitrogen-Metabolism, Bad Zwischenahn, GERMANY, SEP 27-29, 2023. p. S24-S25. DOI : 10.14309/01.ajg.0000948428.52697.c3.

Age Dependence of Neurometabolic Changes in a Rat Pup Model of Type C Hepatic Encephalopathy

D. Simicic; V. Rackayova; O. Braissant; C. Toso; G. Oldani et al. 

2023-09-01. 20th Symposium of the International-Society-for-Hepatic-Encephalopathy-and-Nitrogen-Metabolism, Bad Zwischenahn, GERMANY, SEP 27-29, 2023. p. S24-S24. DOI : 10.14309/01.ajg.0000948424.84976.19.

The Beneficial Effect of Oral Cr Supplementation in an Early Childhood Rat Model of Chronic Hepatic Encephalopathy: In Vivo Longitudinal 1H and 31P Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Study

D. Simicic; O. Braissant; K. Pierzchala; S. Mitrea; D. Sessa et al. 

2023-09-01. 20th Symposium of the International-Society-for-Hepatic-Encephalopathy-and-Nitrogen-Metabolism, Bad Zwischenahn, GERMANY, SEP 27-29, 2023. p. S12-S13. DOI : 10.14309/01.ajg.0000948352.71525.d3.

Central Nervous System Oxidative Stress interplay with inflammation in a rat model of Type C Hepatic Encephalopathy – brothers in arms?

K. Pierzchala; D. Simicic; A. Sienkiewicz; D. Sessa; S. Mitrea et al. 

2023-03-01. 1st international conference on the Future of Redox Biology, ITALY, Jun 17-19, 2022. p. S15-S15. DOI : 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2022.12.056.