Short interview with Professor Dragan Primorac, M.D., Ph.D.

Dear Professor Primorac, thank you for doing this short interview. I have to say when one looks at your impressive CV, they are truly amazed by all your achievements. Even though you have accomplished so much, you are still working hard and you are without a doubt an inspiration to many young scientists. Could you tell me, what motivates you?

- Well, in one sentence: to do good and make steps that have not been made. When it comes to medicine, my greatest inspiration is to help those ones for whom the existing medicine has no answers. My nature is such that I have never walked a paved path for a long time, which is why this combination of science and medicine is for me *laughs* for example, science is my eternal inspiration because it is untouchable and new, and medicine as a profession is not only noble but complete and effective. When I merged these two subjects, about twenty years ago, medicine actually became a true stimulus. I could never do that traditional medicine that is described in handbooks. I am truly happy to pass this knowledge onto new generations and as quickly as possible. That would the main reason why I'm always surrounded by the youth. Sometimes, the old is not able to adapt to this new world which is actually the world of medicine entering the 22nd century. It is a kind of medicine that seeks the integration of what we call the "omics" - glycomics, proteomics, epigenomics. I must say, it is much easier to make Croatia and the special hospital St. Katarina competitive through new generations and the youth, rather than return to the closed worlds of people who are nearing the end of their careers. And curiosity... what always makes me very different is curiosity. Part of my inspiration is that, no matter where I am, I want our team to be among the best and when you have that kind of motivation then it doesn’t really matter how hard and how many hours you put in your work. It is important to me that every night, when I fall asleep, my day is fulfilled. There is a saying that goes, “If you actually look at what you’ve done and you still have a lot of dreams that are unfulfilled, you need to feel young.“ The problem arises when all your dreams come true, and knowing myself I have no doubt that I will actually continue to dream as long as I exist.

A message to the Members of the Student Section for Pharmacology and Immunology - PHARMiON:

- Well... the basic message is that the issue of excellence is not a matter of chance. It’s a matter of choice, and I want you to choose excellence.

Thank You professor Primorac for your time.

– Thank you, Ana.

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*Professor Primorac donated two books to PHARMiON members.