Dr. Milica Pešić

Dr. Milica Pešić was born on May 14, 1971, in Belgrade. She completed her undergraduate studies in molecular biology and physiology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, in 1995. She defended her master's thesis at the same faculty in 1998 and received her PhD in biology in 2008. During her doctoral studies, she took a career break due to five maternity leaves, totalling 6 years. Dr. Pešić is employed at the Institute for Biological Research "Siniša Stanković" - an Institute of National Importance for the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, where she served as Head of the Department of Neurobiology from 2019-2025. Her research areas include cancer research, molecular biology, molecular neuro-oncology, cell biology, innovative antitumor drugs, overcoming chemotherapy resistance in solid tumours, preclinical studies, and experimental biomedicine. According to SCOPUS, Dr. Pešić is a co-author of over 130 publications cited over 2,700 times, resulting in an h-index of 31. During her career, she has been a direct mentor to five doctoral students. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Milica Pešić served as Vice President of the Serbian Society of Cancer Researchers (SDIR) from 2020-2025, and since 2026, she has been a member of SDIR's Supervisory Board. She was also a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) from 2014-2019 and of the University Council for Interdisciplinary, Multidisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Studies of the University of Belgrade from 2019-2021. She was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute for Medical Research - Institute of National Importance for the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, from 2019-2025.

Dr. Milica Pešić led the project from the IDEAS program, the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia (Functional diagnostics in non-small cell lung carcinoma – a new concept for the improvement of personalized therapy in Serbian patients – TargetedResponse, 2022-2025), and is currently leading the work package on the project from the PRISMA program, the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia (Development of nature-inspired photoresponsive anticancer agents - sclareol and artemisinin derivatives in cancer multidrug-resistance models: a foundation for the theranostic approach – PhotoSCLSRT, 2023-2026). She was the principal investigator from Serbia on two international interdisciplinary projects: "Therapy optimization in glioblastoma: An integrative human-data based approach using mathematical models – TOG" (2015-2022, a project funded by the US foundation "James S. Mc. Donnell Foundation") and "Development of thioredoxin reductase inhibitors towards new anti-cancer agents – THIOREDIN" (trilateral project ERA.Net RUS+ Serbia, Latvia and Russia, 2018-2020). She led the Proof of Concept project "Innovative hybrid compounds of sclareol and doxorubicin as a new antitumor strategy in the treatment of glioblastoma" (SCLarDOXInn, 2023-2024), funded by the "Serbia Accelerating Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project – SAIGE". In addition, Dr. Milica Pešić led the Serbian team on the project in cooperation with China, "One Belt – One Road, The National Foreign Expert Project – The study on the bioactivity and mechanism of anti-tumour compounds derived from Primula and other natural species", 2022-2024.

Dr. Milica Pešić is the principal inventor on the granted patent "Hybrid compounds of sclareol and doxorubicin, their synthesis and application" under the designation RS 66375 B1, for which an international patent application has also been filed: PCT/RS2023/000016.

Also, Dr. Milica Pešić was a member of the Management Committee of the COST action CM1106 (STEMCHEM), a member of the Management Committee and the head of the Cancer Research Working Group in the COST action CM1407 (NATCHEMDRUGS), a member of the Management Committee and Grant Awarding Coordinator within the COST action CA17104 (STRATAGEM) and the Innovator Grant IG17104 (STRATAGEM). She is currently a member of the Management Committee and Grant Awarding Coordinator within the COST action CA22103 (Net4Brain). Dr. Milica Pešić was the President of the Scientific Committee of the First Regional Congress, co-organised by the national cancer research societies (Serbia, Croatia and Turkey): "The first regional congress of EACR-affiliated Serbian, Croatian and Turkish societies SDIR, HDIR and MOKAD", held in Belgrade in October 2025.