Zala Perko is a master’s student of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana. Before completing her studies at this faculty, she gained practical experience during her gap year at Lek d. d. in the Microbiology and Analytics departments. She later joined a research group at the Department of Biochemistry, where she worked on the development of enzyme oligomers and collaborated with the company LabCore to study the interactions of proteins with small molecules. Her main research interests include structural biology, enzymology and protein engineering. She will continue to work on this topic as part of her master’s thesis. She is very excited and grateful for the opportunity to visit Prof. Dr. Boštjan Kobe at the University of Queensland in Australia as an ASEF junior fellow. There she will expand her knowledge in the field of structural biology and bring valuable research experience to her future work.
Beyond her academic pursuits, she enjoys spending time in nature, mountaineering, alpine skiing, running and practicing pilates. As a volunteer, she actively participates as a member of an anti-doping team at sporting events. She is passionate about art, from music and ballet to modern architecture.