Jasenka Zubcevic, B.S., P.h.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Brain and Spine

Associate Professor, Microbiomes Institute

Associate Professor, Neuroscience Institute

Contact Info

• Academic Email: jzubcevic@usf.edu
• View My C.V.

Education

Awards/Honors

• Donald J Reiss Memorial Trainee Award (American Physiological Society Cardiovascular Diseases Section - 2006)
• New Investigator Travel Award (American Heart Association - 2011)
• Onsite Trainee Poster Award (High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions - 2013)
• C.E. Cornelius Young Investigator Award (College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida - 2019)
• The American Physiological Society Distinction in Scholarship (American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology - 2019)
• Departmental Award for Innovation in Research, (University of Toledo Physiology and Pharmacology, - 2023)

Memberships

• NIH Study Section Member AN-Z55 (euroimmune and Neuroinflammation involved in Neurodegenerative Disorders, 2022 - Present)
• Member (American Heart Association Hypertension Professional/Public Education & Publications Committee, 2023 - Present)
• Water and Electrolytes Programming Committee Councilor (American Physiological Society, 2023 - 2025)
• Graduate Admissions Committee Member (Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Toledo, 2021 - 2024)
• Department Research Leadership Team Member (Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Toledo, 2021 - 2024)
• Member/Chair (Curriculum Committee, College of Medicine, University of Florida, 2018 - 2020)

Recent Publications

• Plata AA, Otmanowski EB, Zubcevic J. Diet-Microbiota-Host Interactions in Regulation of Cardiometabolic Homeostasis: Emerging Mechanisms and Therapeutic Potential. Microbiota Host. 3(1) , 2025.
• Sree Kumar H, Zubcevic J. ost-microbiota interactions regulate gut serotonergic signaling: implications for hypertension Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 329(6) : C1742-C1751, 2025.
• Dali O, Heitz-Marchaland C, Kernanec PY, Carrion-Padilla J, Godin B, Tevosian S, Zubcevic J, Hayward LF, Smagulova F. Prenatal nicotine exposure induces epigenetic alterations in the Notch signaling genes in the proximal colon in rats. BMC Genomics. 26(26) : 836, 2025.
• Ofori-Kwafo A, Sigdel I, Al Mamun E, Zubcevic J, Tang Y. Gut-on-a-chip platforms: Bridging in vitro and in vivo models for advanced gastrointestinal research. Physiol Rep. 13(9) , 2025.
• Feng Earley Y, Pan S, Verma H, Zheng H, Plata AA, Zubcevic J, Leenen FHH Central nervous system mechanisms of salt-sensitive hypertension. Physiol Rev. , 1900.
• e Araujo A, Sree Kumar H, Yang T, Alviter Plata A, Dirr EW, Bearss N, Baekey DM, Miller DS, Donertas-Ayaz B, Ahmari N, Singh A, Kalinoski AL, Garrett TJ, Martyniuk CJ, de Lartigue G, Zubcevic J. Intestinal serotonergic vagal signaling as a mediator of microbiota-induced hypertension bioRxiv. , 2025.
• Toth DD, Souder CL 2nd, Patuel S, English CD, Konig I, Ivantsova E, Malphurs W, Watkins J, Anne Costa K, Bowden JA, Zubcevic J, Martyniuk CJ Angiotensin II Alters Mitochondrial Membrane Potential and Lipid Metabolism in Rat Colonic Epithelial Cells Biomolecules. 14(8) : 974, 2024.
• Grano de Oro A, Kumariya S, Mell B, Zubcevic J, Joe B, Osman I. pontaneous vascular dysfunction in Dahl salt-sensitive male rats raised without a high-salt diet. Physiol Rep.. 12(14) , 2024.
• Dali O, Muriel-Muriel JA, Vargas-Baco A, Tevosian S, Zubcevic J, Smagulova F, Hayward LF. Prenatal nicotine exposure leads to epigenetic alterations in peripheral nervous system signaling genes in the testis of the rat. Epigenetics Chromatin. 17(1) : 14, 2024.
• Durgan DJ, Zubcevic J, Vijay-Kumar M, Yang T, Manandhar I, Aryal S, Muralitharan RR, Li HB, Li Y, Abais-Battad JM, Pluznick JL, Muller DN, Marques FZ, Joe B. Prospects for Leveraging the Microbiota as Medicine for Hypertension. Hypertension.. 81(5) : 951-963, 2024.

Positions Held

• Associate Professor (Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Toledo 2021 - 2024)
• Assistant Professor (Department of Physiological Sciences, University of Florida 2014 - 2020)