Prof. Dr. Marija Heffer is a tenured professor at the J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek Medical School. She completed her postgraduate studies in chemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Zagreb and obtained her Ph.D. in 1996. During postgraduate study, she was awarded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) grant and worked at the Institute for Zoology at Hohenheim University (1992, Stuttgart, Germany) and the Institute for Cell Culture Technology, University of Bielefeld, (1994, Bielefeld, Germany). As a fellow of the Croatian Ministry of Science, she finished her postdoctoral training at the Departments of Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Baltimore, USA (1997-1998). From 1990 to 2011, she worked at the School of Medicine in Zagreb, initially as an assistant, and later as an associate professor at the Department of Biology. After 1998 she lectured at the Department of Biology and Department of Anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine Osijek, where she established the Laboratory for Neurobiology, and at present, she is the chair of the Department of Medical Biology and Genetics. She is involved in the neurochemistry of brain glycolipids, especially in the role of gangliosides in the development, maturation, and regeneration of the vertebrate brain. She joined the RECOOP HST Consortium/Association in 2010 and is working on the effects of stress and diet.