Biotechnology

Panel of experts assessing candidates for the position of Principal Investigator in the field of biotechnology

EXTERNAL EXPERTS

JACEK KUŹNICKI, PhD, PROFESSOR

Head of a research group at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology
in Warsaw; director of the Institute in 2001-2018. Ordinary member of the Polish Academy of Sciences; member of the National Science Centre Council (2018-2022). In 1980, he was awarded doctorate in biochemistry from the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. Completed a post-doc fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, USA (1981-1984). In 1987, he became an assistant professor and in 1993, professor.

Research interests focus on the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and rare diseases, with particular emphasis on the role of homeostasis and calcium ion signaling. These processes are studied at the genomic, proteomic, cellular and organism levels presently using zebrafish. Together with his team, he described i.a. participation of STIM and ORAI proteins in the SOCE process in neurons, new role of β-catenin as an activator of Cacna1G gene transcription and the mechanism of its accumulation in thalamic neurons, characterized calmyrins and Sgt1 protein, discovered and characterized CacyBP/SIP protein and calcyclin, and identified the new mutations in presenilins that cause familial Alzheimer’s disease.

Awarded i.a. with the Officer’s and Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Leader of research projects: NCN (OPUS, MAESTRO), in H2020 WIDESPREAD-ERA Chairs: MOSaIC, FP7: FishMed, HEALTH-PROT, COMBIOM, ERA-NET NEURON – NeuConnect, ERA-NET RUS – TargetSOCE, in FP6: PROMEMORIA, APOPIS, and in FP5: director of Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biomedicine. Co-author of over 140 scientific publications.

PROF. DR HAB. ZOFIA SZWEYKOWSKA-KULIŃSKA

Professor of biological sciences (she obtained the title of professor in 2001), heads the research group at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (UAM) at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IBMiB), Department of Gene Expression, dealing with the metabolism of RNA with particular emphasis on the biogenesis and function of microRNA in model and utility plants. She has been working at UAM since 1980, now as a full professor. She graduated in Biology in 1980, obtained her Ph.D. in 1986.

In the years 1988–1990 she was on the scholarship of Alexander von Humboldt in West Germany at the University of Wuerzburg, and in 1993 on the EMBO scholarship in France, Gif sur Yvette, CNRS. She received her postdoctoral degree in 1995. In the years 2000-2019, she was the director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of UAM. During this period, more than a dozen group leaders were recruited at IBMiB and new research groups were established, specializing mainly in bioinformatics and human molecular genetics. Member of the CK and RDN. Corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She promoted 16 doctors. Awarded by the Minister of NiSW for lifetime professional activity.

PAWEŁ PRZEWIĘŹLIKOWSKI, MBA

Chief Executive Officer and founder of Ryvu Therapeutics, responsible for strategic management, business and corporate development of the company. He is also the President of Supervisory Board at Ardigen and Member of the Supervisory Board at Selvita. Before founding multiple companies in the biotechnology sector (Ryvu, Ardigen, NodThera), he was a member of the executive team at technology company Comarch, responsible for divisions involved in multiple industries including the pharmaceutical industry.

Mr. Przewięźlikowski is a member of the Economic Council of the Malopolska (Krakow) region. He was awarded Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his contributions to the development of Poland’s business environment, as well as, EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 award in the New Technologies/Innovation category in Poland. Mr. Przewięźlikowski holds an MBA from the joint program of the Teesside University (United Kingdom) and Krakow School of Economics (Poland) as well as master degree in computer science from AGH Technical University in Krakow. He also studied IT at the Technical University in Berlin.

JANUSZ BUJNICKI, PhD, MSc, Prof.Tit.

B. in 1975, a professor of biological sciences (he obtained the title of professor in 2009) and head of a research group at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw and at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He conducts research combining bioinformatics, structural biology and synthetic biology. He developed, among others, methods of computer modeling of spatial structures of proteins and RNA.

He designed and created proteins with new properties. He discovered and characterized new enzymes involved in RNA metabolism. Author of widely cited publications, winner of numerous grants, scholarships and awards for scientific achievements, including: Starting Grant ERC, Proof of Concept ERC, André Mischke Young Academy of Europe Prize for Science and Policy, Awards of the National Science Center (Poland), Awards of the Minister of Science and Higher Education (Poland), Awards of the Prime Minister (Poland).

Winner of the national poll “Poles with verve” in the Science category (2013). Awarded with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Member of: Academia Europaea, EMBO, correspondent member of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) and earlier of the Polish Young Academy of PAN. Member of the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors of the European Commission (2015-2020), representative of Poland in the European Science Advisors Forum, chairman of the University Council of the University of Warsaw (2019-2020).

PRZEMYSŁAW JUSZCZYŃSKI, MD, PhD, MSc, Prof. of the Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine in Warsaw

PROF. DR HAB. MED. PRZEMYSŁAW JUSZCZYŃSKI

Scientific Director of the Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine in Warsaw, in which he also obtained a post-doctoral degree (habilitation) and was appointed associate professor, and in which he has been working as a professor since 2017. He graduated from the medical faculty of the Medical University of Lodz, where he then began doctoral studies and obtained a doctoral degree. During his doctoral studies, he received a START scholarship of the Foundation for Polish Science and completed training at the Department of Clinical Haematology and the Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Service of Leeds General Infirmary in Leeds, Great Britain.

After his doctorate, he received an ICRETT International Union Against Cancer scholarship (Geneva, Switzerland) and a KOLUMB scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science and left the country for a postdoctoral fellowship to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed numerous bioinformatics courses at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After receiving the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of America grant, he joined the junior staff of Harvard Medical School as a Medical Instructor.

He devotes his research to the pathogenesis and targeted therapy of lymphatic cancer. He supervised various grants, including ones of the Polish National Science Center, Foundation for Polish Science, National Center for Research and Development, LLS. He supervised many doctoral students. Winner of various awards, including the J.K. Parnas Polish Biochemical Society Award, the Minister of Science Award for scientific achievements, the Koprowski Polish Society of Oncology Award.

PROF. DR HAB. LESZEK KACZMAREK

Ur. w 1957 r. Członek rzeczywisty PAN, członek EMBO i Academia Europaea; kierownik Pracowni Neurobiologii oraz MAB BRAINCITY Instytutu Nenckiego PAN. Dr n. przyr. 1983; dr hab.1988, prof.1996. Autor ponad 200 publikacji w czasopismach międzynarodowych (cyt. ponad 10 000 razy; indeks Hirscha 60, WoS); ponad 120 wykładów na zaproszenie na zjazdach i sympozjach naukowych członek komitetów programowych czołowych konferencji międzynarodowych; kierownik ponad 50 projektów badawczych przyznanych w konkursach krajowych i międzynarodowych.

Najważniejsze osiągnięcia naukowe: wyjaśnienie roli białka c-Myc w regulacji cyklu podziałowego komórki; odkrycie zmian aktywności genów w uczeniu się; pokazanie programowanej śmierci komórek nerwowych w mózgu dorosłych zwierząt; odkrycie i wyjaśnienie roli metaloproteazy macierzowej, MMP-9 w plastyczności synaptycznej, uczeniu się i pamięci oraz w rozwoju padaczki. Pełnił liczne, w tym i kierownicze funkcje, w krajowych i międzynarodowych organizacjach naukowych i grantowych (PAN, Academia Europaea, EMBO, IBRO, ISN, NCN, panele ERC. Został wyróżniony Nagrodą FNP (2000) oraz Nagrodą Premiera za Wybitny Dorobek Naukowy (2011); a także nominacją na jedno z 25 najważniejszych wydarzeń i osiągnięć nauki w Polsce w latach 1989–2014 (MNiSW „Nauka Wolność”); Krzyżem Kawalerskim (1998) i Oficerskim Orderu Odrodzenia Polski (2009) oraz Medalem KEN (2012).

INTERNAL EXPERTS

ALICJA BACHMATIUK, D.Sc., Ph.D., Eng.

She defended her master’s thesis in chemical technology at the Szczecin University of Technology in 2005, in 2009 she obtained her Ph.D. degree at the same university. She obtained a postdoctoral degree in chemical sciences at the Warsaw University of Technology in 2017. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at IFW Dresden, Germany, as a scholarship holder of RTN Marie Curie and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2009-2012). She worked as a Research Professor (2013-2015) at Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, South Korea.

Since 2013 she has been conducting research on the production and characterization of two-dimensional materials, including graphene in cooperation with Polish and foreign research units. From 2015 she is a visiting professor at Soochow University, Suzhou, China. Co-author of 4 Polish patents, author of over 140 articles from the Philadelphia list (h-index = 39, over 4700 citations). Supervisor of 3 MA theses and tutor of 4 Ph.D. students. Winner of the Ministry of Education’s scholarship for outstanding young scientists (2016), implemented 3 research grants (Alexander von Humboldt, FNP Homing Plus, NCN Sonata). Currently, the manager of three research grants from the National Science Center, FNP and National Center for Research and Development.