Sasha Mendjan

Sasha Mendjan (born 1 June 1978) is a molecular biologist, principal investigator at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and tenure-track assistant professor in synthetic tissue biology at the Medical University of Vienna.

Early life and education Mendjan was born in 1978 in Zemun, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He studied biology and biochemistry at LMU Munich, completing diploma studies in biology and a diploma thesis in biochemistry. His laboratory investigates the molecular and cellular mechanisms of human heart development, congenital heart disease, and regeneration. These models have enabled the study of cardiac lineage specification, chamber formation, and disease mechanisms in vitro, addressing longstanding limitations in modelling human heart development.

Awards and honors 2025: ERC Advanced Grant 2024: FWF Principal Investigator Grant

Selected publications Hofbauer, P. et al. (2021). Cardioids reveal self-organizing principles of human cardiogenesis. Cell. Mendjan, S. et al. Publications in journals including Nature, Molecular Cell, Cell Stem Cell, and Stem Cell Reports.