Our focus is the research on cell stress responses, particularly PACOS, the liver cell response that we discovered, as well as the role of xenobiotics in stress responses and DILI.

Leader: Irina Milisav, PhD., affiliated to Laboratory for Cell Physiology and Toxinology (Head Professor Dr. Dušan Šuput)

The liver has more than 500 vital functions, among them synthesis and degradation of molecules for the whole body, detoxification of blood, activation and clearance of drugs and other ingested substances and blood sugar regulation.

It is a versatile organ with large capacity for regeneration.

Some of its cells can adapt to a moderate stressor through adaptive stress responses that improve cell survival by boosting cell repair mechanisms and reduce cell death.

In contrast, the prolongation of these stress responses due to an inability to resolve the stress results in pathology.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a sudden chemically driven liver damage caused by an adverse drug reaction by over 1000 drugs and many herbal and dietary supplements and it is an important cause of health deterioration and death.

Our focus is the research on cell stress responses, particularly PACOS, the liver cell response that we discovered, as well as the role of xenobiotics in stress responses and DILI.