Associate Professor
School of Life Sciences
University of Hawaii‘i at Manoa
1800 East-West Road, Life Sciences Bldg. Rm. 306
Honolulu, HI  96822

Telephone: (808)956-8055
E-mail: prisic@hawaii.edu

Lab website: https://sites.google.com/view/prisic-group

Education

University of Belgrade, B.Sc. 2000 – Biochemistry
Iowa State University, Ph.D. 2007 – Biochemistry
Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Research Fellow 2007-2012 – Infectious Diseases

Personal Statement

Dr. Prišić received her B.Sc. degree and then Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Belgrade and Iowa State University, respectively. As a graduate student, she studied plant terpene cyclases, including structure-function relationship and enzymatic mechanisms of these enzymes under guidance of Dr. Reuben Peters. Toward the end of her Ph.D. study, she came across a terpene cyclase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and started learning more about this pathogen. Stunned, but inspired by the fact that this causative agent of tuberculosis still represents a major threat to human health, Dr. Prišić joined Dr. Robert Husson’s laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School to gain experience in microbiology and specifically to work on Mtb. For her postdoctoral training (2007-2012), she worked on Mtb Ser/Thr protein kinases and their selected targets. As a Research Associate (2012-2014) at Boston Children’s Hospital, Dr. Prišić worked on ribosome regulation in Mtb. Although mostly focused on Mtb, her research findings and interests might be applicable to other bacteria and therefore be relevant for other infectious diseases (e.g. diseases caused by Clostridium difficile, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, or Staphylococcus aureus). In addition to being a devoted scientist, Dr. Prišić is passionate about teaching and mentoring, with special emphasis on supporting underserved and underrepresented students. Dr. Prisic joined Microbiology Department of University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in August 2014 which became a part of the School of Life Sciences in 2020.