Texas Tech University

Sergej M. Ostojic, MD, Ph.D., FACP

Professor **Currently Accepting Graduate Students**
Nutritional Sciences

Email: sergej.ostojic@etk.pte.hu

Sergej Ostojic is a Professor at the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Texas Tech University with extensive experience spanning clinical medicine, nutrition science, and translational bioenergetics. He is an internationally recognized leader in creatine biology, energy metabolism, and molecular hydrogen research, with a strong focus on bridging fundamental mechanisms with clinical and public-health applications.

Dr. Ostojic has led and contributed to numerous randomized controlled trials, mechanistic studies, and large-scale data analyses (including NHANES, GBD, NCD-RisC, and All of Us), and has secured competitive funding over $10 million through academic, governmental, and industry partnerships. His work has advanced understanding of creatine as a conditionally essential nutrient, guanidinoacetic acid metabolism, and hydrogen-mediated mitochondrial signaling. He holds multiple patents and invention disclosures related to creatine formulations and bioenergetic interventions in the US, UK, EU and Japan.

His research has been published in leading journals such as The Lancet, Nature, BMJ, Trends in Food Science and Technology, Clinical Nutrition, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Nutrition Reviews, Advances in Nutrition, and other high-impact outlets in nutrition, bioenergetics and clinical medicine. Dr. Ostojic serves as an Editor-in-Chief for Clinical Bioenergetics, Associate Editor for Clinical Nutrition ESPEN, and an Editorial Board Member for Nutritional Neuroscience, Food Science and Nutrition, and Journal of Functional Foods.

Dr. Ostojic is deeply committed to mentoring and education, with a strong record of supervising undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. His teaching and mentorship emphasize rigorous methodology, translational thinking, and innovation in human metabolism, clinical nutrition, and bioenergetics.

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Research Interests

Dr. Ostojic’s research encompasses studying mitochondrial viability and implementing targeted nutritional interventions to address impaired bioenergetics in health and disease, and analyzing population health metrics in chronic cardiometabolic diseases.

Key areas of interest:

  • Creatine metabolism, bioavailability, and responsiveness across the lifespan
  • Creatine and guanidinoacetic acid in brain health, aging, and female reproductive health
  • Molecular hydrogen biology and mitochondrial redox signaling
  • Bioenergetic dysfunction in metabolic, neurological, and cardiometabolic disorders
  • Translational nutrition science and conditionally essential nutrients
  • Clinical trial design, biomarkers, and metabolic profiling
  • Big data and population-level analyses in nutrition and chronic disease

Education

  • PhD in Experimenal Medical Sciences (University of Belgrade)
  • MD, University of Belgrade School of Medicine

Courses

  • NS-5330 Introduction to Nutrition Research

Selected Publications (top 20 papers in 2025)

Ostojic SM. Revisiting molecular hydrogen signaling in mitochondria: Is the Rieske protein the entry point or a downstream sentinel? Redox Biol. 2026;89:104003. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2026.104003.

Ostojic SM. Guanidinoacetic acid supplementation: a mechanistic model of utilization and clearance. J Diet Suppl. 2025:1-11. doi: 10.1080/19390211.2025.2606749.

Ostojic SM. High Prevalence of Low Creatine Intake among Individuals Following Common Special Diets. Ann Nutr Metab. 2025:1-4. doi: 10.1159/000549528.

Ostojic SM. The evolving role of creatine in public health: from food-based nutrient to supplement and beyond. Public Health Nutr. 2025;28(1):e190. doi: 10.1017/S1368980025101390.

Ostojic SM, Baltic S, Zanini D. Dietary creatine intake and mental health among the Korean population. Nutr Neurosci. 2025:1-9. doi: 10.1080/1028415X.2025.2558118.

Nedeljkovic D, Todorovic N, Javorac D, Baltic S, Vranes M, Panic J, Kladar N, Ratgeber L, Betlehem J, Acs P, Stea TH, Engeset D, Stajer V, Ostojic SM. The effects of 8-week creatine supplementation with and without ubiquinol on sperm quality biomarkers in normospermic and oligospermic men: A randomized controlled pilot trial. Nutr Health. 2025:2601060251385000. doi: 10.1177/02601060251385000.

Ostojic SM, Rátgéber L. Creatine as a mitochondrial theranostic in predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine. EPMA J. 2025;16(3):541-553. doi: 10.1007/s13167-025-00420-9.

Nedeljkovic D, Todorovic N, Stea TH, Engeset D, Ostojic SM. Association between dietary creatine intake and serum biomarkers of spermatogenesis in males aged 12 years and older. Reprod Fertil. 2025;6(3):e250009. doi: 10.1530/RAF-25-0009.

Korovljev D, Ostojic J, Panic J, Ranisavljev M, Todorovic N, Nedeljkovic D, Kuzmanovic J, Vranes M, Stajer V, Ostojic SM. The Effects of 8-Week Creatine Hydrochloride and Creatine Ethyl Ester Supplementation on Cognition, Clinical Outcomes, and Brain Creatine Levels in Perimenopausal and Menopausal Women (CONCRET-MENOPA): A Randomized Controlled Trial. J Am Nutr Assoc. 2025:1-12. doi: 10.1080/27697061.2025.2551184.

Ostojic SM, Kavecan I. Linking dietary creatine to DNA methylation-based predictors of mortality in individuals aged 50 and above. Lifestyle Genom. 2025;18(1):1-8. doi: 10.1159/000547260.

Todorovic N, Baltic S, Nedeljkovic D, Kuzmanovic J, Korovljev D, Javorac D, Bijelic K, Kladar N, Tarnava A, Ostojic SM. The Effects of 8-Week Hydrogen-Rich Water Consumption on Appetite, Body Composition, Sleep Quality, and Circulating Glucagon-like Peptide-1 in Obese Men and Women (HYDRAPPET): A Randomized Controlled Trial. Medicina (Kaunas). 2025;61(7):1299. doi: 10.3390/medicina61071299.

Ostojic SM. Dietary creatine intake and all-cause mortality among U.S. adults: a linked mortality analysis from the NHANES study. Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2025;50:1-6. doi: 10.1139/apnm-2025-0001.

Ostojic SM, Prémusz V, Ács P. Creatine and cellular senescence: from molecular pathways to populational health. Exp Gerontol. 2025;207:112798. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2025.112798.

Baltic S, Todorovic N, Popovic S, Galic V, Semnic M, Ostojic SM. Breath hydrogen levels in patients with Parkinson's disease: A pilot cross-sectional study. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2025;133:107353. doi: 10.1016/j.parkreldis.2025.107353.

Ostojic SM. Establishing Reference Intakes for Creatine in Infants Aged 0 to 12 Months. Nutr Rev. 2025;83(7):e2139-e2143. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuae124.

Ostojic SM. Assessing Dietary Creatine Intake in Population Studies: Challenges and Opportunities. Nutr Rev. 2025;83(7):e2009-e2014. doi: 10.1093/nutrit/nuae155.

Ostojic SM, Grasaas E. Dietary Creatine and Hydration Biomarkers in the General Population: NHANES 1999-2023. Food Sci Nutr. 2025 27;13(7):e70524. doi: 10.1002/fsn3.70524.

Todorovic N, Nedeljkovic D, Panic J, Ostojic SM. Sleep deprivation elevates circulating creatine levels in healthy adults: a pilot study. Sleep Biol Rhythms. 2025;23(4):477-479. doi: 10.1007/s41105-025-00587-8.

Global Nutrition Target Collaborators. Global, regional, and national progress towards the 2030 global nutrition targets and forecasts to 2050: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. Lancet. 2025;404(10471):2543-2583. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01821-X.

Todorovic N, Ranisavljev M, Korovljev D, Mauti J, Neumann C, Mboya I, Ferrero E, Ourohiré M, Somé S, Liu S, Shinde S, Noor RA, Bärnighausen T, Ostojic SM. Promoting Adolescent and Youth Health Through Physical Activity Initiatives and Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa: The ARISE-NUTRINT and DASH Initiatives. Int J Public Health. 2025;70:1608609. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2025.1608609.

Fellowships and Leadership Positions

  • Fellow, American College of Physicians
  • Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Clinical Bioenergetics (MDPI)
  • Series Editor, Translational and Applied Bioenergetics (Elsevier)
  • Board of Directors, European Academy for Molecular Hydrogen Research in Biomedicine
  • Founding Director, Applied Bioenergetics Laboratory
  • Head of Mitochondrial Medicine Center, Medical Polyclinic Fizikus, Belgrade
  • Co-Founder, Creatine Global Initiative (Norway)



Nutritional Sciences

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