Andrea Zatkova works in the common laboratory of the Institute of Molecular Physiology and Genetics (Slovak Academy of Sciences) and of the Department of Molecular Biology (Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University) in Bratislava. Already during her diploma study at the Comenius University she worked on a project related to Alkaptonuria: ‘Homogentisate 1,2-dioxygenase from the liver of human, mice, and alkaptonuric mice’ (1994).

During her PhD studies she worked on the molecular analysis of Slovak AKU patients. Dr Zatkova collaborated with the laboratory of Dr Santiago Rodriquez de Cordoba (Unidad de Patologia Molecular, Fundacion Jimenes Diaz, Madrid, Spain), where she performed part of the mutation screening and analysis of polymorphic markers within the HGD gene in families of Slovak patients with AKU (1999-2000).

She has continued in molecular analysis of HGD gene mutations in AKU patients from different countries since 2008, after coming back from her postdoc stay in the Laboratory of Medical Biology of Vienna Medical University. In December 2010 she participated in the establishment of the National Centre for Alkaptonuria and Ochronosis at the National Institute of Rheumatic Diseases in Piestany, Slovakia. At the present she is also curating a new HGD mutation database.

Dr Zatkova was a speaker at the 4th International Workshop on AKU, presenting on: Update on Alkaptonuria in Slovakia and the HGD Mutation Database