Team:Warsaw/Team/Supervisors

Instructors and Advisors

prof. dr hab. Jacek Bielecki

Education

MSc, University of Warsaw, 1975 PhD, University of Warsaw, 1981 Associated professor, Warsaw University, 1995 Professor at University of Warsaw, 1996 Vice Dean of Faculty of Biology, 1996 - 1999, and 1999-2002

Scholarships:

• Germany , 1984, University of Tuebingen, 10 months
• Germany, 1985, Max Planck Institute, 8 months
• USA, 1989, University of Pennsylvania post doc, 2,5 years
• USA, 1993, University of Pennsylvania, visiting prof., 3 months
• USA, 1999, University of California, Berkeley, visiting prof., 2 months

Research interests:

Molecular mechanisms of virulence of bacteria Listeria monocytogenes, especially the role of a hemolysin, listeriolysin O (LLO). LLO is a 58 kDa sulphydryl-activated, pore-forming cytotoxin which allows L. monocytogenes to escape from the phagocytic vesicle in macrophage and causes actin cytoskeleton reorganization in infected cells. LLO- mutants are much less virulent and do not survive in macrophages.

Prof. Piotr Stępień

Education, Degrees

1997 Professor in Genetics ( scientific degree, nomination by the President of Poland )
1985 Dr. Sci. ( Doctor Habilitatus ) degree obtained from the University of Warsaw
1976 Ph.D. from the Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw
1971 B. Sci. with Honours from the Institute of Biochemistry, University of Warsaw

Professional history:

• 2000 Full Professor ( Profesor Ordinarius) Department of Genetics, University of Warsaw Research on human genes involved in mitochondrial functions, cancer and aging
• 1991 Associate Professor (Profesor Extraordinarius), Department of Genetics, University of Warsaw
• 1989-1991 Sabbatical at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Research on genes controlling biogenesis of mitochondria in yeast
• 1984-1989 Assistant Professor ( Docent ) at the Department of Genetics, University of Warsaw. Studies on evolution of fungal gene families.
• 1981 –1984 Research Associate at the National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa. Research on expression of human proinsulin gene in yeast and bacteria.
• 1978-1981 Senior Research Assistant at the Department of Genetics, Warsaw University. Studies on evolution of mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes
• 1976-1978 Awarded the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship : postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Goettingen, Germany Studies on mitochondrial genome of Aspergillus.
• 1971-1976 Research Assistant at the Department of Genetics, University of Warsaw. Studies on genetics of sulphur metabolism and amino acid transport in Aspergillus.

Research interests:

Regulation of gene expression in mitochondria is achieved mainly by controlling stability of mRNA and its decay rate. Nuclear encoded proteins participate in polyadenylation of mitochondrial transcripts and in their subsequent degradation. At present I work on four human genes involved in these processes : polyA polymerase, polynucleotide phosphorylase, RNA helicase and RNase II. Three of them have been characterized for the first time in my lab.

Two of the proteins seem to play additional important roles in aging and cancer. To study this, my research plans involve employing various techniques of molecular biology, proteomics and transgenic animal models.

Personal:

married, two children
hobbys: opera, antique textiles

Michał Lower

I come from Warsaw, our capital city :-). I study Biotechnology at University of Warsaw. My M. Sc. thesis in Department of Virology was about new method of rapid determination of type III DNA methyltransferase recognition sequences. Apart from molecular biology I'm passionated with computer programming.

Paweł Krawczyk

I come from small village in the south of Poland but now I’m a student of biotechnology and psychology at the College of Interfaculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Warsaw. Scientifically I’m freak on any fluorescent methods connected with protein research. My B. Sc. thesis was mainly about FRET method in context of regulation of the Hsp90 molecular chaperone protein. No I work in the field of neuroscience, especially on the molecular basis of schizophrenia (it doesn’t mean I live in a world of hallucinations). In my free time I love to play football and volleyball and listen to music, especially blues and rock. Last year I've started in iGEM as a student and it was very challenging experience. I hope it will help during this year "synthetic" adventure