After completing her undergraduate studies in chemical engineering, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Helena Podgornik earned her PhD in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Ljubljana. After a decade working in biotechnology and bioremediation, she moved to the field of laboratory hematology in 2003. From 2007 she is a specialist in clinical biochemistry (EuSpLM) and from 2015 a specialist in medical laboratory genetics (ErCLG).

Assoc. prof.dr. Helena Podgornik is the head of the Specialized Hematology Laboratory at the University Medical Centre Ljubljana and a professor of clinical biochemistry and laboratory medicine at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana. The Specialized Hematology Laboratory is the only institution in Slovenia dedicated to laboratory hematology and the diagnosis of various hematological diseases. Her main focus is the implementation and integration of different laboratory techniques to obtain comprehensive diagnostic and prognostic information. She has collaborated on national and international research projects related to hematological malignancies. In the last two decades, she has contributed to over 30 scientific publications in this field, some of which are the result of multicenter international collaboration.

She has been a member of national and international associations and has led the working group for laboratory hematology at the Slovenian Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine since 2014.