Dr Joanna Sułkowska
Faculty of Chemistry and the Center of New Technologies at the University of Warsaw

Host: Prof Darren Martin

Dr Joanna Sułkowska is Head of the "Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Modeling Biological Systems" at the Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw. In 2007 she defended with distinction her doctoral dissertation in the field of biophysics, devoted to the characteristics of mechanical properties of proteins. In 2016 she obtained her habilitation at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Warsaw and professor position in 2018. Her greatest scientific achievement she considers is the discovery and characterization of non-trivial topology in proteins such as knots, slipknots, lassos and theta curves, the determination of mechanisms of their formation and relationships with biological function. She has also worked successfully on antagonists for GPCR-type proteins (CB1 and CB2). She is an author of over 80 scientific publications, including Nature Structure & MB, JACS, PNAS, PRL, NAR where she combines theoretical approach with experimental data. Joanna Sulkowska has given many public lectures and has been awarded many times for her scientific achievements. She has received the Installation and Young Investigatoraward from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), grants from the National Science Centre, the Foundation for Polish Science, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland. She is the winner of the 2018 National Science Centre Award in Poland in the field of Life Sciences (for people under 40 years), and an award from MNiSW in 2020. She received the international prize Unesco-L'Oreal ''Rising talent'' and was chosen as a person of the year “MocArty – 2017” by Polish RMF Classic. She was also ranked among the group of 50 brave people in the initiative Jutronauci by Gazeta Wyborcza (PL) in 2017.