Prof.dr. Kristina Gruden has in 2015 received the state Zois’s award for exceptional achievements in Systems biology and Molecular biology. The award represents an important step in recognition of successful research of the group in the area of plant immune signaling and its potential impact in agriculture.

Prof. dr. Kristina Gruden is the principal investigator in the Department of Biotechnology and systems biology at NIB. Her research interest lies in studying molecular mechanisms of plant disease as a basis for further biotechnological applications in agronomy. The crops she is mainly studying are potato and grapevine. In her work she is focused on studying signaling in plant immunity when exposed to multiple stressors, and thus brining the experiments towards field conditions. She was also pioneering the studies of grapevine yellows disease, a phytoplasma caused disease of grapevine. To achieve this major goal dr Kristina Gruden is also developing advanced technologies that allow wholistic studies of biological systems. She is one of the pioneers of systems biology in Slovenia, linking large scale data collection with the appropriate bioinformatics and modelling approaches.

In the last seven years she published 60 scientific papers, coauthored one scientific monography and has written 14 book chapters. Her work has been cited more then 1200-times.