Anna Zawada, PhD

Anna graduated as a Master of Science in Engineering in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from Gdansk University of Technology, where she was identifying metabolic products of anti-cancer active compounds synthesized in the department. Then, in the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry PAS in Poznań, she focused on elucidating the structure of a fragment of an avian influenza virus genome, which enabled her to gain practical experience in chemical, biochemical and molecular biology methodologies in the field of nucleic acid analysis. When she moved to Warsaw, she started her PhD studies in the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics PAS, on maintaining genome stability using yeast as a model organism. Her first topic on a specific mutation in cancer eventually led her to a project related to mechanisms of repetitive DNA replication upon defective replisome.

During her later postdoctoral fellow in the International Institute of the Molecular Mechanisms and Machines PAS she worked on the maintenance of cellular proteostasis by engaging a immuno-specific type of proteasome, which could be an alternative molecular target for inhibitors in mitochondrial diseases. In her second project there she used metabolic labeling and click chemistry approach to track translation upon mitochondrial stress. So far, she has been a co-author of 2 scientific papers in high-impact journals.

In the Computational Genomics Group led by Marcin Tabaka at ICTER she is involved in the realization of the project ‘Benchmarking Human Tissue Culture Systems that Mimic the Tumor Microenvironment’ funded by OPUS 21 grant.

Anna is crazy about crocheting, a passionate lavender grower and a self-taught guitar player.