Aljoša Škorjanc is a sixth-year medical student at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine, with a strong interest in neurosurgery. As an ASEF Junior Fellow, he was selected for a research visit with Prof. Richard Aplenc at the University of Pennsylvania. He aims to deepen his understanding of CAR-T therapies, contribute to ongoing research, and learn from the research culture in the United States, with the goal of later applying these insights to immunotherapeutic strategies for primary brain tumors, particularly glioblastoma. His work spans basic and clinical research. He served as the lead developer of GOReverseLookup, a bioinformatics tool for phenotype-to-gene discovery published in Computers in Biology and Medicine, which earned the Dr. Uroš Seljak Commendation and the University of Ljubljana Prešeren Award.

In clinical research at the Department of Neurosurgery at UMC Ljubljana, he leads comparative outcomes research in spinal dural arteriovenous fistulas and is engaged in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage research focused on delayed cerebral infarction, for which he developed a novel points-based risk score to enhance early prediction. His findings were presented at two of the world’s leading neurosurgical congresses, namely the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies Congress 2025 in Vienna and the 19th World Congress of Neurosurgery – World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies 2025 in Dubai.

Outside his studies, he is committed to surgical education through the Surgical Suturing Project at the Faculty of Medicine, where he has held leadership roles and organized hands-on workshops and international congresses for over 900 Slovenian and international medical students. He developed multilayer silicone suture pads that improve suturing fidelity and needle handling realism, which are now integrated into the suturing workshops. A long-standing background in competitive sports continues through recreational gym training, volleyball, and alpine skiing, while programming remains a long-term personal interest.