Our Team

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Prof. Daniela Ostatníková, MD, PhD

After graduating from general medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava, she served as medical doctor at the Department of internal Medicine. She completed her postgraduate education at the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, where she is currently a Professor of normal and pathological physiology and a guarantor of the doctoral study program "Medical Neurosciences". Her main topics of interest has been the effects of sex steroids on cognitive function and the involvement of hormones in the etiology of autism. She completed several residencies at foreign universities, thanks to the Fulbright Foundation study stay at the University of Michigan (2004), thanks to the Templeton Scholarship study stay at the University of Iowa (2008). She has been a visiting professor at Nova Southeastern University, Florida. She initiated the cooperation with prof. Baron-Cohen at the Autism Research Center at the University of Cambridge, developed by her students. She is the founder of Academic Research Center for Autism.

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Assoc. prof. Katarína Babinská, MD, PhD. MSc.

A graduate of the Medical Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava, where she later defended her dissertation and obtained the PhD degree in the field of normal and pathological physiology. She completed her postgraduate studies at the University of London in Great Britain by obtaining the title of Master of Human Nutrition. After graduating, she has been involved for 12 years in research of human nutrition. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Physiology, Comenius University lecturing Human Physiology, as well as Nutrition. During her fellowship in USA, she was trained in research methods of dietary assessment. Since 2010, she has been investigating autism within the Academic Research Center for Autism. Her research interest is focused mainly on digestive problems, nutrition, and dietary issues, as well as sleep impairments associated autism spectrum disorders.

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Ing. Katarína Gronová

In 2002 she graduated from the University of Economics in Bratislava. Already during her studies, she worked as a marketing specialist in the ČSOB financial group, leasing. Since 2013, she has been the mother of a child with special needs. From the field of marketing and finance, the professional focus was redirected to helping parents of children with the rare multisystem disease Tuberous Sclerosis within the Association of Tuberous Sclerosis Slovakia. Since 2019, she has been working as the coordinator of the Academic Research Center for Autism. She is the first contact person in our center.

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Mgr. Ivan Belica, PhD.

He graduated in psychology from the University of Trnava. He successfully completed postgraduate studies at the Institute of Physiology, Comenius University, under the guidance of Assoc. prof. Katarína Babinská, Ph.D. MSc. with the topic of “Adaptive Behavior in Autism and its biological correlates”. As a part of the ARCA team, he participates in the diagnosis and research of autism. He also works as a researcher at the Research Institute of Child Psychology and Pathopsychology in Bratislava.

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Mgr. Jana Haramiová

Magisterské štúdium v odbore psychológia absolvovala na Filozofickej fakulte UK v Bratislave. V súčasnosti je študentkou dennej formy doktorandského štúdia v odbore Lekárske neurovedy na Lekárskej fakulte UK v Bratislave. Pod vedením Doc. MUDr. Aleksandra Tomova, PhD. pracuje na téme dizertačnej práce „Črevná mikrobiota a tráviaci systém pri poruchách autistického spektra“. V Akademickom centre výskumu autizmu LF UK je súčasťou diagnostického tímu a aktívne sa zapája do vedeckej práce v rámci viacerých výskumných projektov.

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Mgr. Mária Kopčíková, PhD.

She graduated from the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava,  in the field of psychology psychology in 1998. In the years 1997 - 2009 she worked in the Center of Pedagogical - Psychological Counselling and Prevention in Bratislava focusing on working with children, with entire class groups (topics included prevention of socio-pathological issues, peer groups, behavioural problems, and adaptation to school). She also worked with teachers and parents. Part of her work was the preparation and implementation of various projects. She completed the basic psychotherapeutic training at PCAin 2001. She has been registered as a member of the Slovak Chamber of Psychologists since2009. Since the same year, she has been working in private practice as a team member at the “Kvapka” Family Center. In 2018, she completed a specialized study of counselling psychology at the Slovak Medical University University in Bratislava. Since December 2019, she has also been part of the team of the ARCA team. From 2021 she is a doctoral student at the Institute of Physiology, Comenius University, where under the guidance of prof. MUDr. Daniela Ostatníková deals with the topic of Biological markers of developmental trajectories in children with ASD.

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Mgr. Katarína Janšáková, PhD.

Molecular biologist, independent researcher In 2013, she completed her studies in Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Science, Comenius University in Bratislava. She completed her doctoral studies at the Institute of Molecular Biomedicine with a focus on saliva and oxidative stress in inflammatory diseases. During her doctoral studies, she completed a one-year internship at the Dental Institute, King's College London, where she worked with a team specializing in saliva research. After graduating in 2017, she joined the team of the Institute of Physiology as a researcher. Within the Academic Research Center for Autism, she is involved in several projects related to autism spectrum disorders, but especially the analysis of hormones, the path of their production, the so-called steroidogenesis and the factors that influence this production.

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RNDr. Klaudia Kyselicová, PhD.

Anthropologist, teacher, currently on maternity leave She completed her Master degree in Anthropology at the Comenius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences. At the Academic Research Center for Autism (ARCA), she meets children with autism spectrum disorders on a daily basis, her topic of interest is physical signs of autism developmental disorder on the basis of anthropometric data. The aim of her research is to find suitable biomarkers that would facilitate and speed up the diagnosis of children at an early age; even with non-standard approaches - taking fingerprints and examining their specifics or measuring the lengths and ratios of individual fingers.

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Mgr. Gabriela Repiská, PhD.

She graduated from the Department of Biology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Constantine the Philosopher in Nitra. She completed her postgraduate studies in 2015 at the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava in the field of Normal and Pathological Physiology. During her studies, she completed a research stay abroad focused on extracellular vesicles at the Krefting Research Center, Gothenburg University in Sweden. She focuses on research into the molecular genetic basis and diagnostics of various diseases. Within the Academic Research Center for Autism, she is primarily engaged in research into genetic and epigenetic predictors of autism spectrum disorders, their role in ASD pathomechanisms and relationships with psychological-behavioural parameters.

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MUDr. Ivan Szadvári, PhD.

Doctor, expert assistant He graduated from the 1^st Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague with a degree in general medicine and completed postgraduate studies in Brno at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in the field of physiology and pathological physiology. He currently works as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Physiology, Comenius University in Bratislava. As part of his scientific activities, he collaborates on research projects that address the etiology of autism.

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Assoc. prof. Aleksandra Tomova, MD, PhD.

She graduated from Sechenov University (Moscow Medical Academy IM Sechenov) in the Russian Federation in general medicine. Subsequently, she completed an internship as a doctor in Bulgaria, and further specialized in the field of dermatology and venereology. She obtained the PhD degree at the Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology at the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at New York Medical College, USA, where she studied the expression and regulation of bacterial genes, as well as  antibiotic resistance genes. For the last 9 years, she has been studying the role of the intestinal microbiota on gastrointestinal  and behaviour manifestations in children with autism spectrum disorders.

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Ing. Jana Paulusová

Our team of laboratory technicians takes care of the biological samples, their processing, storage and registration. Jana Paulusová, who studied analytical chemistry, has been a part of ARCA team since 2020.

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RNDr. Jaroslava Babková, PhD.

RNDr. Jaroslava Babková, PhD, works as an assistant professor at the Institute of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University in Bratislava. She graduated in genetics from the Faculty of Science, Comenius university. In 2014, she completed her doctoral studies at the Institute of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, in the field of Normal and Pathological Physiology. She completed international stays abroad in Great Britain and the USA. She studies the effects of sex hormones on behavior and cognitive function. She also collaborates on projects focused on revealing the etiology of autism. Together with her colleagues, she was awarded the IgNobel Prize for Medicine (2015) for research of intense kissing.