| Roman Jerala | |
| Birth Date: | 1962 |
| Birth Place: | Jesenice |
| Nationality: | Slovenian |
| Fields: | synthetic biologist |
| Alma Mater: | University of Ljubljana, University of Virginia |
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| Thesis1 Url: | and |
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| Thesis1 Year: | and |
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Roman Jerala (born 1962) is a Slovenian biochemist and synthetic biologist, internationally best known as the leader of Slovenian teams that won the Grand prize at the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition several times.
Jerala was born in Jesenice, a town in then People's Republic of Slovenia, FPR Yugoslavia. He completed his undergraduate studies and received a PhD at the University of Ljubljana. He was a postdoc at University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA, in academic year 1994/1995.
He is now employed at the National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana, Slovenia, as the head of its Department of Synthetic Biology and Immunology and a full professor at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical technology, University of Ljubljana. Since 2009, he is synthetic biology project director at the Centre of Excellence EN-FIST.[1]
Jerala was elected a member of the Academia Europaea in 2017,[2] EMBO in 2017 and to the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences SAZU in 2019.
In 2013, Nature Chemical Biology published an article about Jerala's achievement that paves a path to designing and producing completely new protein shapes using reprogrammed bacteria by synthesizing protein that folds itself into a tetrahedron — a pyramid with a triangular base measuring just 5 nanometres along each edge - which can be used as container for delivering drugs on the nanoscale. Genetically modified Escherichia coli bacteria were drafted in to synthesize the protein.[3]
Dek Woolfson, a biochemist from Centre for Nanoscience and Quantum Information, UK, described this kind of engineering with the following words:[3]
Jerala's team is trying to double the size of the coiled coils in the tetrahedron, and made other shapes, such as prisms and bipyramids.[4]
In 2011, Jerala was interviewed in Evening Guest talk show, aired by Slovenian National TV and hosted by Sandi Čolnik, one of the most recognizable Slovenian TV personalities.[5] He has been very active during Covid19 pandemic in media promoting scientific information on the virus and vaccination.