Urska Bukovnik, PhD

Dr. Urska Bukovnik received her MSc. degree in biotechnology from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, EU in 2003 and her Ph.D. degree from the Department of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Kansas State University, KS, USA in 2011. Her graduate thesis, aimed at designing selective synthetic channel-forming peptides for use in treatments of cystic fibrosis, combined the fields of biophysics, proteomics and medicinal biochemistry. The essential part of her research was done at the Washington University School of Medicine, at the Department of cell biology and physiology in St. Louis, MO, USA. She contributed an important step towards effective therapies for cystic fibrosis patients and received several distinguished awards: Student Travel Award for the 55th Biophysical Society Meeting in Baltimore, the Johnson Cancer Center Summer Stipend award and Irvin & Dora Mae Atkins award scholarship.

She returned to Europe after her graduation and continued her research work, yet in the field of biochemistry in nutrition. In 2015 she received an International Olympic Committee diploma in sports nutrition and started working with elite athletes as a nutrition specialist. She is a Head of research at the Institute of Sport and the assistant to professor at the department of Nutrition at the Faculty of Sport, at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, EU.

However, with an increasing demand for highly trained nutrition specialists specialized in regenerative medical sciences she is now focusing more to metabolic medicine and work at the Health Cliniques. Her major interests and work areas involve gastroenterology, neurology and cardiology. 

• Sports Medicine