Biology subjects

Ostojic, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Ostojic, M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Fly, land, listen: Autonomous intermittent locomotion enables scalable low-noise drone ecoacoustic surveys

Ecoacoustic monitoring is enabling scientists and land managers to monitor and manage biodiversity more effectively and cost-efficiently in the face of human pressures and rapidly changing climates. Currently, most ecoacoustic surveys use manually deployed static sensors to record data, limiting the scale and reach of surveying efforts. Here we present a proof-of-concept autonomous drone platform that can use intermittent locomotion to conduct ecoacoustic surveys using an onboard sensor. Our custom prototype is able to fly, navigate, and avoid obstacles autonomously, land at a pre-determined location, record audio from an onboard microphone whilst static, before taking off and moving to the next sampling site. Autonomous navigation and operation enable greater sampling flexibility, reach, and scalability. Furthermore, by recording audio only whilst landed, noise from the drone's rotors does not mask signals or disturb animals, simplifying signal processing and downstream ecological analyses. We conducted trials in a scrubland habitat at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, where our prototype demonstrated successful autonomous navigation and obstacle avoidance. Furthermore, we found that avian biodiversity data collected from the drone platform was comparable to that from traditional static acoustic sensor deployments, and that vocalisation patterns were not significantly impacted by the noise of the drone arriving or leaving a site. While scaled deployments of our technology would require further technical and regulatory challenges to be solved, our first demonstration of autonomous intermittent robotics-assisted ecoacoustic surveys lays the foundations for more cost-effective and far-reaching biodiversity surveys, with transformative potential for conservation, agricultural management, biosecurity, and more.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2026

Automated bird flight pattern extraction and classification using machine learning

With bird populations across the world being impacted by ever-growing anthropogenic pressures, reliable monitoring is essential to help halt or reverse declines. Existing visual bird monitoring approaches, which employ cameras or radars to deliver automated and large-scale monitoring data, face a variety of issues. Image-based species classification is only possible if the fine-scale features of a bird are clear, which can be difficult to achieve in real monitoring contexts without expensive, high-resolution cameras due to occlusion and lighting. Radar and video-based approaches which analyse longer-term flight behaviour over the course of seconds can achieve more reliable results in real monitoring contexts, particularly from greater distances, but still require expensive equipment and do not account for all the possible types of flight patterns. Here we present a novel approach to track a wide range of bird flight patterns using inexpensive equipment. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate how our approach can be used to classify birds between four species, Red Kite, Kestrel, Black-Headed Gull and Sparrowhawk, which represent four different types of flight patterns. The balanced accuracy of the classification is 0.5583, with a recall and precision per species that range from 0.2640-0.7750 and 0.4583-0.5962, respectively. Our proof-of-concept study demonstrates how new and existing visual bird monitoring systems can leverage flight patterns to deliver species-level insights at lower costs and on larger scales than before.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Nischarin agonist rilmenidine shows antimetastatic potential in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive cancer types with a dismal prognosis. Early metastatic dissemination and rich desmoplastic stroma limit therapeutic efficacy, and the discovery of new treatment approaches that will target these obstacles is of great importance. Nischarin (NISCH)/Imidazoline-1 receptor (IR-1) is a potential tumor suppressor, that is involved in the regulation of cell migration, invasion, and cytoskeletal organization. Importantly, several FDA-approved agonists target this receptor. This study aimed to examine the expression of NISCH in PDAC and the effects of its agonists with the intent of drug repurposing. NISCH was expressed in PDAC tumor tissue, in both the epithelial and stromal compartments of tumors, and higher NISCH expression was associated with longer patient survival. Out of the three tested NISCH agonists, rilmenidine was the most potent and could induce cancer cell apoptosis. Rilmenidine treatment induced transcriptional changes in cancer cells associated with so far reported NISCH function and decreased their adhesion and migration in vitro. In CAFs, rilmenidine treatment decreased the expression of activation markers and limited cancer cell-CAF cytokine communication in co-culture. Ultimately, in the in vivo tumor xenograft zebrafish model, rilmenidine reduced the metastatic spread of pancreatic cancer cells. Our results suggest that NISCH agonist rilmenidine is a promising candidate for drug repurposing as an antimetastatic agent in PDAC and that NISCH can be a potential target for the development of new PDAC therapeutics.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Phylogenetic pattern of SARS-CoV-2 from COVID-19 patients from Bosnia and Herzegovina: lessons learned to optimize future molecular and epidemiological approaches

Whole Genome Sequence of four samples from COVID-19 outbreaks was done in two laboratories in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Veterinary Faculty Sarajevo and Alea Genetic Center). All four BiH sequences cluster mainly with European ones (Italy, Austria, France, Sweden, Cyprus, England). The constructed phylogenetic tree indicates probable multiple independent introduction events. The success of future containment measures concernig new introductions will be highly challenging for country due to the significant proportion of BH population living abroad.

genetics↗