Milorad Kojić is a Doctor of Biological Sciences and a Full Research Professor. He graduated in 1987 from the Department of Biological Sciences at the Faculty of Science and Mathematics, University of Belgrade. In 1992, he obtained his master's degree from the same faculty, majoring in Molecular Biology, with a thesis titled "Cloning and Characterization of the sgm Gene from Micromonospora zionensis." In 1994, he defended his doctoral thesis, "Analysis of Regulatory Regions and Expression of the sgm Gene from the bacterium Micromonospora zionensis," at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade.
He began his research career at IMGGE in 1988. From 1997 to 2012, he worked at Cornell University in the USA, where he was appointed as an Instructor in Microbiology in 2003 and later became an Assistant Research Professor in 2007. After returning to Serbia, he resumed his work at IMGGE as a Full Research Professor.
His scientific interests lie in molecular genetics, particularly focusing on the resistance mechanisms that allow antibiotic producers to protect themselves from their own toxic metabolites. He also studies the ways in which the integrity of the genome is maintained, particularly through DNA repair via homologous recombination. Additionally, he explores the cellular mechanisms responsible for the effective recovery of populations upon shattering (RUS) caused by the action of extreme stressogenic factors.
He has achieved several notable milestones, some of which are groundbreaking. The following stand out: the unexpected discovery that the unicellular model system Ustilago maydis possesses the BRCA2 gene, suggesting that the presence of this gene in living systems may be more widespread than previously believed; and the characterization of the dss1 phenotype in a BRCA2 organism, which provided the first compelling evidence that Dss1 is indeed functionally linked to BRCA2. Additionally, he made decisive contributions to the opening and conceptual-methodological establishment of a completely new scientific research field (RUS), as well as to the recent discovery of new genes involved in the preservation of the genome, which solidified a valuable basis for further research.
