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Curriculum Vitae
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- Experience in conformational and dynamic studies of the modified RNAs, and their interactions with proteins.
- Experience in high resolution structure determination of complex biomolecules like RNA and proteins.
- Strong background in the application of multi-step synthetic methods for the preparation of modified nucleic acids and other biologically active chemicals.
2004 Completed advanced NMR course learning product operator formalism (BIOS 481- Molecular Biophysics) and practical X-ray crystallography course (BIOS 535).
2001 Ph.D. Organic Chemistry, Center of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences , Lodz , Poland .
Thesis title: Chemistry and Stereochemistry of Nucleosidyl Phosphorofluoridates and Their Structural Analogues.
Advisor: Professor Jan Michalski.
1992 M.Sc. in the Organic Chemistry, Institute of the Organic Chemistry, Department of Pharmacy, Medical Academy, Lodz, Poland. President’s Award for excellence in study.
2002 - to the present Rice University , Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.
Welch Postdoctoral Research Associate : Performing the s ynthesis of the modified RNAs and studies of their structures, dynamics, and interactions with the proteins. Current projects:
- Structural studies of the anticodon stem loop (ACSL) of tRNA Phe containing pseudouridines and N6-dimethylallyl-modified adenosine. These require the preparation of 13C, 15N-labeled RNAs using enzymatic methods, the expression and purification of the unlabeled and 13C, 15N-labeled proteins in the E. coli bacteria, the chemical synthesis of site 13C, 15N-specific labeled nucleotides and the application of the 2D and 3D NMR techniques to solve the structural problems.
- Determination the metal binding sites in the complex thio-modified rRNA (helix21 of 16S rRNA) with the ribosomal S8 protein from E. coli using NMR and EPR techniques.
- Chemical synthesis of site specific 15N-labeled nucleosides used to find the mechanism reaction of the RNA with the MiaA enzyme (tRNA isopentenyl transferase).
- Structural studies of the small nucleolar RNA (snoRNA) H/ACA box involved in rRNA pseudouridylation in Euglena gracillis using NMR and ITC techniques.
1993-2001 Center of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences
(Prof. Jan Michalski).
Senior Research Assistant: Synthesis of the modified and diastereomerically pure dinucleotides. Studies the scope and limitation of new phosphitylating reagents containing P-F and P-CF 3 bond. Determination methods of the synthesis of dinucleotides with the modified internucleotide bond 3’-S-P(S) or 5’-S-P(S).
1998/1999 (4 months) Institut für Organische Chemie, Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Visiting Scientist (Prof. Joachim W. Engels group): Synthesis and studies of the reactivity of the new phosphitylating reagents containing P-F and P-CF 3 bonds.
1995 (3 months) Institut für Organische Chemie, Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Visiting Scientist (Prof. Joachim W. Engels group): Studies of the reactivity and stability of P-F containing dinucleotides and their synthesis on the solid phase.
Teaching and guidance experience: |
2005 Teaching the BIOS122 course ( Fundamental Concepts in Biology), Rice University .
2002-2005 Guidance and teaching of undergraduate students, Rice University .
1993-2005 Guidance and teaching of graduate students, Center of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland.
2003 Travel award, Nucleic Acids Gordon Conference, Newport , RI .
2003 Travel award, 39 th International Union Pure and Applied Chemistry Congress, Ottawa , Canada .
2002 IUPAC ( International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) Award for Young Chemist.
2002 Sigma-Aldrich Award for Young Chemist, Polish Chemical Society.
1992 President’s Award for excellence in study, Poland .
- Protein expression and purification.
- Nucleic acid (RNA, DNA. nucleoside) chemical and enzymatic synthesis and purification (gel electrophoresis, electroelution, HPLC).
- Experience in 2D-NMR, 3D-NMR using 500 and 600 MHz Varian.
- Circular dichroism spectroscopy.
- Fluorescence spectroscopy and UV-visible spectrophotometry.
- Extensive experience in using UNIX based computer systems SGI machines, IBM PCs and Macs.
- Molecular dynamics and Molecular Modeling methods with XPLOR, XPLOR-NIH, HyperChem, Insight II.
- Experience of using variety of Molecular Viewers such as PyMol, Chimera, Swiss-Plot deep viewer, RasMol.
- Biological Sequence Analysis with BLAST.
- Proficient with NMRPipe, Sparky and Felix2000.
Professional memberships: |
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (2003 to the present)
- American Chemical Society (2003 to the present)
- RNA Society (2003 to the present)
- Biophysical Society Meeting (2004 to the present)
Total 24, first author in 5 of them
References can be requested from following persons |
