Polona started her professional career in 2004 at NIB, where she finished her PhD in molecular biology and virology. Since then, she was involved in different national and EU projects dealing with molecular method development and validation e.g., qPCR, isothermal amplification LAMP, ddPCR, for detection and quantification of microorganisms. Her main expertise is in applicative research along various research topics, e.g., plant pathology, ecology, veterinary, food industry, medicine. She developed several molecular assays for microorganism detection, optimised for fast on-site (POC) detection and transferred them to stakeholders. In 2016 she started working with pharmaceutical companies in the gene therapy field and introduced activities for virus vector quantification to NIB.

Since then, she has been leading analytical projects for gene therapy companies. Most recently, as part of the first response team to the corona pandemic, she established a testing system for the determination of filtration efficiency of surgical masks and lead projects for testing of antiviral activity to support stakeholders to combat Covid19. Her experiences and connections from different fields of work enable her to identify requirements and offer solutions to partners from various life science industries.