SARIB

Partner No. 4: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, Pierottijeva 6, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia, http://www.pbf.hr/

Year of Establishment
- The Faculty of Chemical Technology, Food Technology and Mining was established by an Act of the Croatian Parliament on April, 1956.
- The Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology separated from the Faculty of Technology in 1980 and become an independent member of the University of Zagreb.
- The Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology is one of the Faculties of the University of Zagreb, located in the town centre at 6 Pierottijeva Street in Zagreb - the capital of Croatia. The Faculty occupies an area of 10 000 m2.

Faculty Staff
The Faculty has 92 teachers (of which 27 full professors, 11 associate professors, 20 assistant professors, 2 senior lecturers, 32 young assistants), and 27 technical staff. There are 53 employees in administration and supporting services. At present, there are 43 postgraduate research students undertaking studies for MSc or PhD degrees, supported either by the Ministry of Science and Technology or industry funding.

Main activities:
- Education and Research
Education in:
- Food Science & Technology;
- Biotechnology
- Environmental Sciences
Research in:
- Food Science & Technology
- Biotechnology
- Environmental Sciences
- Life Sciences
Education and research are organised through six Departments and thre Centres.

No of Participants in SARIB 6:
prof. dr. Kata Galić
prof. dr. Božidar Grabarić
prof. dr. Margareta Glancer Šoljan
prof. dr. Damir Kovaček
prof. dr. Mara Banović
prof. dr. Tibela Landeka-Dragičević

This group will contribute to SARIB as follows:
- development of the "all-solid-state" potentiometric sensors for surfactant pollution
- exploration of applicable methods for industrial waste water treatments

The role of PBF wil also be to disseminate the results of the SARIB project. This will include:
- Workshops organization on Biosensors for environmental application.
- Knowledge transfer of a new method – bioaugmentation to scientists and application in real wastewater systems.
- creation of Web based information services with relevant publication database
- creation and moderating of mailing list for SARIB project
- creation and moderating of Usenet News server for public discussion on SARIB subject
- supporting and organising of distance learning seminars and workshops in cooperation with other partners
- organizing public presentation with various government and nongovernmental organization
- delivering of CD and/or DVD with seminars and workshops

Major projects during the last 5 years:
- Synthesis and Biocatalyzed Reactions of aromatic compounds
- Gene expression and the role of yeast extracellular proteins
- Intracellular mechanisms in reproductive toxicology
- Intellectual and industrial property in Croatian Science
- Study of the role of somatotropin (growth hormone) in production of sheep’s meat
- Biopolymers and extrusion cooking
- Modelling an intelligence control technology
- Study of food quality changes during preparing and storage
- Student’s nutrition 1998-1999
- Investigation of environmental mutagens and antimutagens
- Yeast transformation and mechanisms of genetic changes
- Modelling and scale-up bioprocesses
- Mycotoxins in Food in the Area of the Republic of Croatia
- Probiotic activity of lactic acid bacteria
- Hypocholesterolemic activity of lactic acid bacteria
- Novel hybrid polyketide therapeutics
- Bioelectrical impedance for evaluation of beef meat quality
- Optimising the quality of selected milk products
- Non-refined vegetable oils of high quality and long shelf life
- Yeast biomass production of high quality
- Production of mixed cultures of micro-organisms
- Development of higher biological value food products
- Water treatment by nanofiltration process

Prof. dr. Kata Galić, is senior researcher Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology at the University of Zagreb. She coordinated several national and international projects related to barrier characteristics and permeability mechanisms of gas transmition through polymeric materials and factors affecting shelf-life of foodstuffs. She has published over 50 papers in the peer-reviewed literature and proceedings of international conferences. She has supervised several diploma, master and PhD thesis.

Prof. dr. Božidar Grabarić, is senior researcher and the Head of the Laboratory of General and Inorganic chemistry and electroanalysis at Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology at the University of Zagreb. He coordinates a number of project related to biosensors research including development of analytical methods. He is a coordinator of several national and international projects related to development of new electrochemical biosensors. He has published over 90 papers in the peer-reviewed literature and proceedings of international conferences and books. He has supervised a number of master and PhD thesis.

Prof. dr. Damir Kovaček, is senior researcher and the Head of the Laboratory of Analytical chemistry at Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology at the University of Zagreb. He coordinates a number of projects related to applied molecular modelling and spectroscopy including development of analytical methods. He is a coordinator of several national projects related to molecular modelling and applied spectroscopy. He has published over 40 papers in the peer-reviewed literature and proceedings of international conferences and books. He has supervised several diploma and PhD thesis.

Prof. dr. Margareta Glancer-Šoljan, is senior researcher and the Head of the Laboratory for the Biological Waste Water Treatment at Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology at the University of Zagreb. She coordinated several national and international projects related of Development and Application of Wastewater Treatment Processes (Biological Processes with Bioaugmentation). She has published over 60 papers in the peer-reviewed literature and proceedings of international conferences, as well as about 16 applicable technological projects. She has supervised numbers of graduate diploma work, master and PhD thesis.

Prof. dr. Tibela Landeka Dragičević is an assistant professor in the Laboratory for the Biological Waste Water Treatment at Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology at the University of Zagreb. She is an active researcher on several national and international projects related of Development and Application of Wastewater Treatment Processes (Biological Processes with Bioaugmentation). This includes biodegradability of toxic organic compounds in industrial waste waters; production of mixed microbial cultures. She is a supervisor of about 10 diploma works.

Important papers of the researchers in charge in the last three years

1. M. Torres, J.-M. Diaz-Cruz, C. Arino, B.S. Grabarić and M. Esteban: Three-dimensional Voltammetric Study on the Applicability of Leden Function to the Analysis of Nonlabile Complexes: The Cd(II)-NTA System, Electroanalysis, 11 (1999) 93-100.
2. Z. Grabarić, D. Iveković, L. Sipos, B.S. Grabarić: Improved Signals Ratio Resolution Method by Optimization of Resolution Function - Simultaneous Determination of Cu(II) and Cd(II) in Water Samples, J. AOAC Internat. 82 (1999) 1185-1196.
3. G.S. Nunes, D. Barceló, B.S. Grabarić, J.M. Diaz-Cruz, M.L. Ribeiro: Evaluation of Highly Sensitive Amperometric Biosensor with Low Cholinesterase Charge Immobilized on a Chemically Modified Carbon Paste Electrode for Trace Determination of Carbamates in Fruit, Vegetable and Water Samples Anal. Chim. Acta, 399 (1999) 37-49.
4. S. Milardović, Z. Grabarić, B.S. Grabarić: Sensitive Amperometric Oxalate Biosensor for Food Analysis, Food Technology and Biotechnology, 38 (2000) 203-210.
5. S. Milardović, Z. Grabarić, V. Rumenjak, N. Blau, D. Milošević, Urinary Oxalate Determination by Amperometric Biosensors, J. AOAC Intern. 84 (2001) 1927.
6. K.Galić, N.Ciković, S. Hamin, K. Berković, Inhibition Efficiency of Natural Compounds on Tin Corrosion in Salt Solutions, Proceedings of the Eurocorr 2001, The European Corrosion Congress, CD-ROM, Ref.No. 183.pdf, p.p. 1-7.
7. N.Ciković, K.Galić, S.Prejac, Effect of Lysine on the Corrosion Protection of Aluminium and Tin in Salt Solutions, 50th ISE Meeting, Pavia (1999) P-558.
8. N.Ciković, K.Galić, S.Prejac, Amino Acids as Corrosion Inhibitors of Tin in Salt Solutions, 51st ISE Meeting, Warsaw (2000) P-532.
9. D. Vikić-Topić, P. Novak, Z. Meić, J. Plavec and D. Kovaček: "Intrinsic Long Range Deuterium Isotope Effects on 13C NMR Chemical Shifts as a Conformational Probe in Benzene Derivatives", Croat. Chem. Acta, 72 (4), (1999).
10. Z. Popović, G. Pavlović, D. Matković-Čalogović, Ž Soldin, M. Rajić, D. Vikić-Topić and D. Kovaček: "Mercury(II) complexes of heterocyclic thiones. Part 1. Preparation of 1 : 2 complexes of mercury(II) halides and pseudohalides with 3, 4, 5, 6-tetrahydropyrimidine-2-thione. X-ray, thermal analysis and NMR studies.", Inorganica Chimica Acta., 306 (2):142-152, 2000.
11. P. Novak, V. Gabelica, D. Žiher, D. Kovaček, Z. Ivezić: “Hydrogen-bonding interactions in some benzopyranopyridine esters”, J. Mol. Struct., 565 (Special Issue SI):13-16, 2001.
12. Z. Džolić, M. Cetina, D. Kovaček, A. Hergold-Brundić, D. Mrvoš-Sermek, A. Nagl, N. Slade, K. Pavelić, O. Zerbe, G. Folkers, L. Scapozza, J. Balzarini, E. De Clercq and M. Mintas, "Optically Active Derivatives of 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic Acid: Synthesis, Theoretical Study, Absolute Configuration and Biological Evaluation", Tetrahedron, (in print).
13. D. Ježek, B. Tripalo, D. Karlović and D. Kovaček: “Dehidratatyon of celery by infra-red drying”, Croat. Chem. Acta, (in print).
14. Margareta Glancer, Vice Šoljan, Jože Jurković, Process Improvement by Means of Selected Microorganisms, UTA International, 5 (1999) 16-20.
15. V. Šoljan, T. Dragičević, M. Glancer-Šoljan, S. Ban, Aerobic degradation of formaldehyde by the selected mixed culture of bacteria and yeasts, Biotechnology 2000, The World Congress on Biotechnology, Berlin, (2000) 425-427.
16. T. Dragičević, V. Šoljan, M. Glancer-Šoljan, S. Ban, Application of the selected mixed culture of granulous nitrificants and denitrificants in the nitrification and denitrification process, Biotechnology 2000, The World Congress on Biotechnology, Berlin, (2000) 521-523.
17. Margareta Glancer-Šoljan, Vice Šoljan, Tibela Landeka Dragičević and Ljiljana Čačić, Aerobic Degradation of Formaldehyde in Wastewater from the Production of Melamine Resins, Food technol. biotechnol. 39 (2001) 197-202.
18. M. Glancer-Šoljan, S. Ban, T. Landeka Dragičević, V. Šoljan and V. Matić, Granulated Mixed Microbial Culture Suggesting Successful Employment of Bioaugmantation in the Treatment of Process Wastewaters, Chem. Biochem. Eng. Q. 15 (2001) 87-94.

Research projects of the researchers in charge

B. Grabarić: Development and Application of Computerized Instrumentation, Financed by Self-management Community for Science, Croatia, 1986 - 1990.
B. Grabarić: Modelling, Estimation of State, Control and Design of Chemical Reactors (Coordinator of the project), Financed by Self-management Community for Science, Croatia, 1986 - 1990.
B. Grabarić: Software for On-Line Electrochemical Measurements, International YU-US/EPA Project No. JFP 769, 1988 - 1991.
B. Grabarić: Development of Electrochemical (Bio)sensors and Computerized Hyphenated Instrumentation, Financed by Croatian Ministry of Science and Technology, 1991-1996.
B. Grabarić: Development and Application of (Bio)sensors and methods of, Financed by Croatian Ministry of Science and Technology, 2001-on.
Project: “Changes of Proteins during Extrusion” Promoter: Croatian Academy of Science and Art, HAZU). Principal investigator: D. Kovaček
D. Kovaček, collaborator on applied investigations for PLIVA d.d.
Project: “Croatian Chemical Server” Promoter: CARNet. Principal investigator: D. Kovaček
Project 058202: “Biopolimers and Extrusion Cooking.”. Promoter: Ministry of Science and Technology. Investigator: D. Kovaček
Project 058212: “Electronic text-book of chemistry” Promoter: Ministry of Science and Technology. Principal investigator: D. Kovaček
Project: “Programme for Social Protection of Youngsters in the city of Zagreb” Promoter: City of Zagreb. Principal investigator: D. Kovaček
M. Glancer.Šoljan: Production of mixed cultures of microorganisms, Financed by Croatian Ministry of Science and Technology, 1997-on
M. Glancer-Šoljan (Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb) and Ekološki inženjering, Poreč: EUREKA project «BIOMAC» Bioreactor for innovative mass bacteria culture, 2001-on

International cooperation of the researchers in charge

B. Grabarić: From 1975 to 1977 postdoctoral fellow at Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, working with Prof. Dr. sc. Alan M. Bond (financed by University of Melbourne).
B. Grabarić: From March to October 1979 doing research at Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, working with Prof. Dr. sc. Donald E. Smith (financed by Northwestern University).
B. Grabarić: From July to September 1988 doing research at Department of Chemistry, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA, working with Prof. Dr. sc. Joseph Wang (financed by international YU-US/EPA project No. JFP 769, 1988 - 1991, and New Mexico State University).
B. Grabarić: From October 1, 1993 to April 1, 1998 visiting professor at Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain, working with Prof. Dr. sc. Miquel Esteban and Prof. Emeritus Enric Casassas. (From October 1, 1993 to September 30, 1995 financed by the Generalitat de Catalunya; from October 1, 1995 to March 31, 1997 financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education; April 1, 1997 to August 31, 1997 financed by the Generalitat de Catalunya; from October 1, 1997 to March 31, 1998 IBERDROLA visiting professor of science and technology).
B. Grabarić: From September 15, 1998 to October 15, 1998 visiting scientist at Department of Chemistry, Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering, University of Lleida, Catalunya, Spain, working with Prof. Dr. sc. Jaume Puy (financed by Generalitat de Catalunya).
K. Galić: From November 21, to December 12, 1988. fellowship at the Rome University, Department of Chemistry. "Application of new electrochemical methods in food analysis"
K. Galić: The British Council Fellowship: - From September 2, 1990. to February 1, 1991. Humberside University (Grimsby,U.K) "Use of Polarography in Food Analysis"; - From February 1, 1991. to April 28, 1991. International Tin Research Institute (London,U.K:) "Application of DC and AC measurements in the study of beverage cans". (working with dr. Tom Murphy)
K. Galić: From January 17, 1994. to May 17, 1994. JWT Jones Fellowship provided by The Royal Society of Chemistry, London, U.K. at: University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Corrosion and Protection Centre, Manchester, U.K. "Application of AC Impedance Measurements to Study Performance of Lacquered aluminium samples in acetic acid solution" (working with dr. David J. Scantlebury)
K. Galić: Bicro Workshop - Financing the Entrepreneurial, Technology-Based, Emerging Fast Growth-Oriented Company : From April 20, 1998. to April 29, 1998. Zagreb, Croatia; From May 5, 1998. to May 8, 1998. Ann Arbour, Michigan, USA; From May 26, 1999. to May 30, 1999. Gorizia, Italy
Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Bihać, BiH
Faculty of Medicine, University of Bihać, BiH
Technische Universität Berlin, Departmen of Food Biotechnology and Process Engineering, Deutschland
Sinhrotron Trieste, Trieste, Italy
Universität of Heidelberg, Deutshland
Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Biological nutrient removal from industrial wastewater using different microbial associations (Method: Bioaugmentation)
The possibility of removal of nitrogen from pharmaceutical wastewaters (Lek d.d., Krka d.d., Slovenia; Biochemie, Austria; Richter Gedeon, Hungary; Pliva-Lachema, Czech Republic)
Biological treatment of wastewater from chemical industries