Marija Djurkovic, M.S.

Marija is a Texan native raised in the Rio Grande Valley. She received her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from Texas State University-San Marcos in 2016 and her Master’s in Immunology & Infection from UT Health San Antonio in 2019. During her master’s, she investigated the role of transglutaminase 3 gene in colitis and colorectal cancer. Following graduation, she worked at VRL-Diagnostics as part of the R&D team. Marija decided to pivot back to research and join Dr. Shtanko’s lab on February 2022 due to her strong interest in infectious disease work. Since then, she has completed BSL-4 training and continues to apply various microscopy techniques to study filovirus spread in the host. When she is not at work or thinking about her future educational plans, she loves spending time with her husband and her 5 fur babies in the beautiful south side of San Antonio.