Promoting Science
This year, the students participated in the 23rd Festival of Science, Technology, and Art in Łódź, which was held at Manufaktura. They also organized workshops for high school students as part of the Lodz University of Technology's Open Doors initiative and hosted another edition of the ‘May Conference’ under the theme Science – Not Fiction. This event, intended for high school students, typically attracts over a hundred participants.
Research Projects
Members of Ferment are involved in different research projects that allow them to expand their knowledge and build skills. Recently, the results of two of them research were published in the Web of Science-indexed journals.
The first publication focused on endophytic bacteria isolated from stinging nettle (Urtica dioica L.) and was published in Microbial Cell Factories, a journal ranked at 140 points on the Ministry of Science and Higher Education's list. The project began in 2019, with students conducting their experiments under the guidance of dr hab. inż. Olga Marchut-Mikołajczyk, university professor. A key aspect of the project is its inclusiveness, involving students at different stages of advancement into their degree programs, including first-year students who are given the opportunity to gain hands-on laboratory experience. Additionally, this research, part of the project titled ‘Metagenomic Analysis of Bacterial Endophytes in Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica L.)’, won funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s ‘Student Research Groups Create Innovations’ grant scheme.
The second recent publication by the Group, appearing in early 2024 in the Journal of Structural Biology (100 points on the ministerial list), presents the findings from a bioinformatics project analyzing bacterial regulatory proteins, particularly those involved in environmental stress response. This project originated during the COVID-19 lockdown when lab work was suspended. During an online meeting, the students conceived the idea of conducting in silico analyses. They approached their supervisor, dr inż. Agnieszka Pietrzyk-Brzezińska, who helped fine-tune the topic and guided them through the analysis. The students used computational tools to analyze the spatial structures of bacterial proteins. Due to the fact that bacterial proteins play a critical role in antibiotic resistance, the findings could contribute to the development of new antibacterial therapies.
The research results were presented by inż. Jakub Filipek, the project’s first coordinator and former president of Ferment, at the national conference ‘Biotechnology Has Many Faces’ (Poznań, 2024), where his presentation received an award. The findings were also showcased at the 8th National Genetics Conference ‘Genomica’ in Kraków.
Participation in the BioLAB Program
Apart from the publications that are group achievements, individual members of Ferment have also attained notable success. Thanks to his involvement in the Group’s activities and participation in scientific conferences, inż. Jakub Filipek was awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship under the BioLAB program to undertake a one-year research internship in the United States. He will develop his expertise in molecular biology and biochemistry at the University of Chicago, which ranks 10th in the 2023 Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities.
In a similar vein, inż. Aleksandra Kośmider, another member of Ferment, previously won the Fulbright scholarship. During the past academic year, she completed the internship at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, where she conducted research in the field of immunology.
These examples demonstrate the remarkable development opportunities available to students involved in research groups like Ferment.
