12TH
BIOTECHNOLOGY
STUDENTS’
CONFERENCE
aNNUAL MASTER THESIS CONFERENCE
FOR IFB UG&MUG STUDENTS AND INVITED GUESTS
ORGANISED BY THE STUDENTS’ COUNCIL AND AUTHORITIES
of intercollegiate FACULTY OF BIOTECHNOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSITY
OF GDAŃSK AND MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF GDAŃSK
Honorary Speakers
This year, for the first time in the history of the Faculty, the best student presentation will be distinguished by prof. Anna Podhajska’s award.
Prof. Ewa Łojowska – a longtime co-worker and friend of prof. Podhajska will introduce her scientific achievements and contribution to the development of the Faculty.
Prof. Michał Szymański will give a keynote lecture entitled: „Mitochondrial genome maintenance in health and disease”
Prof. Ewa Łojkowska
Prof. dr hab. Ewa Łojkowska obtained her degree in plant Physiology from the Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń, Poland . She holds a PhD in Plant Biochemistry from Institute from The Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute – National Research Institute, Poland.
She has received USDA fellowship to continue her work at the Department of Plant Pathology University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Her work allow to present usefulness of somatic hybridization for the introduction of valuable breeding traits cultivated potato. She has obtained French Ministry of Science fellowship to continue studies at Laboratory of Molecular Genetics of Bacteria at INSA Lyon, France in which she described the method of in planta testing the expression of virulence genes of pectinolytic bacteria.
She is a Head of the Plant Protection and Biotechnology Laboratory at the IFB UG & MUG, Gdansk, Poland. During her work in Gdańsk she concentrated on the pangenomics of pectinolytic bacteria from genus Dickeya and Pectobacterium and development of new methods for phytopathogens detection and eradication.
She was the coordinator of several international and national projects: POLONIUM, CANALETTO, HARMONIA, OPUS, etc. Twenty PhD students completed their thesis under her supervision. She is an author of more than 125 original publications in Molecular Microbiology, Phytopathology, BMC Genomic, Frontiers in Microbiology, Scientific Reports and other.
She is the President of the Committee of Biotechnology Polish Academy of Science (2020-2023). She was was awarded the City of Gdańsk Jan Heweliusz Scientific Award 2021 in category of natural sciences.
Michał R. Szymański, PhD, DSc
Dr hab. Michał Roman Szymański, prof. UG obtained his degree in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the University of Houston, USA. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Texas.
After that he received a prestigious Jeane B. Kempner Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue his research at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and later Department of Pharmacology of the University of Texas Medical Branch.
His work contributed to understanding the mechanisms of bacterial DNA replication and repair, the structural basis of human mitochondrial DNA replication, and toxicity associated with the use of antiviral drugs.
In 2017, he received POLONEZ (National Science Center) and FIRST TEAM (Foundation for Polish Science) grants and joined the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk (IFB UG-MUG) as a Structural Biology Group Leader.
He obtained his habilitation in 2019 and became the Head of the Structural Biology Laboratory at IFB UG-MUG.
In addition to domestic and foreign scholarships and grants, he won the prestigious EMBO Installation Grant (2018), European Research Council grant, ERC Starting Grant (2019), and in 2022 he was awarded the EMBO Small Pilot Grant.
He is an author of more than 25 original publications in Science, Nature Communications, PNAS, EMBO Journal, JBC, JMB and over 50 conference reports.
PRESENTATIONS BY YOUNG RESEARCHERS
Public presentation of the results of the master’s thesis is a key element of the graduation process
at the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Gdańsk and Medical University of Gdańsk (IFB).
From the beginning of the Faculty, presentations were held as a part of the International Student Scientific Conference (ISSC) organised by the Medical University of Gdańsk, and since 2009 as a part of the Biotechnology Students’ Conference.
The conference is organised by the Students’ Council of the IFB together with the Faculty Authorities.
The conference is in English and is also attended by foreign Erasmus students carrying out their master’s theses at our Faculty.
