biology

Marta Zlatic

Marta Zlatic is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Marta Zlatic rather than just read about it. In short: Marta Zlatic (born 24 February 1977) is a Croatian neuroscientist who is group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. Her research investigates how neural circuits generate behaviour.

Key takeaways

Marta Zlatic belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
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Reproduce the core statement of Marta Zlatic from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Marta Zlatic (born 24 February 1977) is a Croatian neuroscientist who is group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. Her research investigates how neural circuits generate behaviour.

Early life and education Zlatic is from Zagreb, Croatia. She has said that growing up she had excellent Latin and Greek teachers. She was awarded a full scholarship to study the Natural Sciences Tripos at Trinity College, Cambridge. During her summer holidays from Cambridge, Zlatic studied linguistics and Russian at the University of Zagreb. Alongside her studies, Zlatic was involved with the Cambridge theatre scene, taking part in Greek tragedies and Shakespeare's plays. As an undergraduate student Zlatic attended the lectures of Mike Bate, where he discussed the neural circuits of fruit flies. She enjoyed the lectures so much that she applied for a postgraduate degree. During her doctoral research Zlatic looked at the development of neurons in Drosophila. As the nervous system starts to form, neurons start to produce axons and dendrites. Zlatic showed that sensory neurons, which allow for sight, sound, pain and touch, look for particular locations in the nervous system using positional cues.

Research and career After earning her doctorate, Zlatic was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge which allowed her to travel internationally and study the assembly of neural circuits. In 2009 Zlatic started her independent career at the Janelia Research Campus. At Janelia she learnt about the genetic tools used to manipulate the types of neurons in Drosophila. Zlatic has dedicated her career to the study of the nervous system, in particular the positional cue known as the slit protein which controls how sensory neuron axons start and stop growing. She showed that slit proteins control branching along the mediolateral axis but not the dorsoventral axis, indicating that there are positional cues in three-dimensions. Zlatic is interested the complex functions of the human brain, including language and communication. She studies these phenomena in the Drosophila larva (maggot). She made use of electron microscopy to map the entire larval Drosophila connectome, and studies the strengths of the connections between neurons that are structurally connected. By investigating the connectivity of these neurons it is hoped that these particular patterns could be associated with the formation of memories.

Awards and honours 2025: Elected Fellow of the Royal Society 2024: Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences 2020: Elected to EMBO Membership by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). 2020: Awarded the Crick Lecture by the Royal Society 2017 Eric Kandel Young Neuroscientist Prize 2004 Thomas Henry Huxley Award from the Zoological Society of London

Publications Her publications include:

Labeling of active neural circuits in vivo with designed calcium integrators A multilevel multimodal circuit enhances action selection in Drosophila The complete connectome of a learning and memory centre in an insect brain

Personal life Zlatic is fluent in several languages, including Croatian, English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Ancient Greek, and Latin. Alongside her enthusiasm for languages and neuroscience, Zlatic is an actress. She is married to neuroscientist Albert Cardona.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marta Zlatic

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marta Zlatic claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Marta Zlatic before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Marta Zlatic ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Marta Zlatic

In research: Marta Zlatic appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Marta Zlatic in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Marta Zlatic is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1977 births, Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge, Croatian emigrants to the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marta Zlatic outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Marta Zlatic in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Marta Zlatic means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Marta Zlatic out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Marta Zlatic in simple terms?

Why does Marta Zlatic matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Marta Zlatic?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Marta Zlatic.