Dr Kristel Klaassen Ljubičić is a molecular biologist and physiologist whose research focuses on rare diseases. She graduated from the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade in 2010, and obtained her PhD in 2015 at the same faculty, with a thesis titled “Impact of variants in coding and noncoding regions of disease-causing and modifier genes on phenotype of patients with hyperphenylalaninemia”. She has been employed at the IMGGE since 2011 and is currently a member of the Group for Rare Disease Research and Therapeutics Development. Throughout her career, she has focused on studying the molecular basis of various inborn errors of metabolism, primarily phenylketonuria, while her current scientific work is centered on the understanding of the effect of genetic variants on the phenotype of patients with these diseases through large-scale genomic data analysis.

Dr Kristel Klaassen Ljubičić is participating in numerous national and international research projects addressing rare diseases, with a specific focus on the study of inborn errors of metabolism and the development of potential new therapeutics for these diseases. As a research coordinator at Chan Zuckerberg Initiative „Rare As One“ project with „Hrabriša (Lil’ Brave One)“ Association supporting families of children with rare neurotransmitter diseases, she aims to establish patient-led research and help build research networks. She is a lecturer and a demonstrator in courses within the doctoral program in Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade. Also, she is involved in molecular diagnostics of rare diseases at Center for Genetic Diagnosis of Rare Diseases at IMGGE.