Tijana obtained PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2010. Following two successful postdocs at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science in Edinburgh and at the Bristol Heart Institute, Tijana took a break from academia for family reasons. In 2016 Tijana obtained a highly competitive fellowship from the British Heart Foundation to restart her academic research at the University of Edinburgh deciphering epigenetic regulation in cardiovascular diseases.

In 2019, Tijana obtained a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy for teaching efforts. Her team investigates the epigenetic changes via long non-coding RNAs in vascular damage. Since 2022 Tijana led BHF Transitional Fellowship project on the regulation of novel endothelial cell-specific and enhancer-derived lncRNA-actions in cardiometabolic diseases. Tijana is a leader on a European CostAction project on multiomics in atherosclerosis, a Senior Editor of JME, and a 2020 SfE Leadership and Development Awardee.