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Two more people have joined the group of four outstanding young scientists awarded special ministerial scholarships at the Medical University of Bialystok. On 8 August 2024, Rector Professor Adam Krętowski presented special diplomas to llona Ościłowska, PhD, from the Department of Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical Analysis and Magdalena Kusaczuk, PhD, from the Department of Pharmaceutical Biochemistry. Both scientists work at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Laboratory Medicine of the MUB. The Ministry thus recognised the quality of their research and their scientific achievements to date.
It is worth mentioning that universities, institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences and research institutes submitted a total of as many as 1,700 candidates for scholarships. The applications were evaluated by a specially appointed team using a scoring method, within the framework of individual disciplines of science and art. The Ministry of Science and Higher Education awarded a total of 228 scholarships to outstanding young scientists, including only 23 in the medical and health sciences. Just Ilona Ościłowska, PhD, and Magdalena Kusaczuk, PhD, were among those awarded.
The scholarships were awarded for a period of three years and will be paid monthly. Presenting the diplomas, MUB Rector Professor Adam Krętowski admitted that although this is an individual distinction for scientists, it is a great celebration for the university. The criteria for awarding the minister's scholarship are mainly an assessment of scientific achievements, such as publications, won grants, patents, other awards or prestigious internships.
The scholarships were awarded for a period of three years and will be paid monthly. Presenting the diplomas, MUB Rector Professor Adam Krętowski admitted that although this is an individual distinction for scientists, it is a great celebration for the university. The criteria for awarding the minister's scholarship are mainly an assessment of scientific achievements, such as publications, won grants, patents, other awards or prestigious internships.
Ilona Ościłowska, PhD, analyses, among other things, the influence of selected natural compounds and selected medicinal products (e.g. metformin, verapamil) on biological processes in normal and cancer cells.
Ilona Ościłowska, PhD, analyses, among other things, the influence of selected natural compounds and selected medicinal products (e.g. metformin, verapamil) on biological processes in normal and cancer cells.
I am extensively involved in biochemistry and molecular biology related to cancer. Recently, my main focus has been on the experimental treatment of breast cancer. With the team I work with, we are trying to test the mechanisms of action of medicinal products that are either already on the market or are only available for research, whether they modify the biochemistry of the cell and how they affect the metabolic pathways of cells, in order to use their additional properties in translational medicine. To give an example, we tested metformin, a popular substance used in the pharmacotherapy of diabetes, to see if it could be used in experimental therapy for the treatment of breast cancer. Ilona Ościłowska emphasised at the meeting with journalists that this is basic research, and she has been working on this topic for 11 years.
I am extensively involved in biochemistry and molecular biology related to cancer. Recently, my main focus has been on the experimental treatment of breast cancer. With the team I work with, we are trying to test the mechanisms of action of medicinal products that are either already on the market or are only available for research, whether they modify the biochemistry of the cell and how they affect the metabolic pathways of cells, in order to use their additional properties in translational medicine. To give an example, we tested metformin, a popular substance used in the pharmacotherapy of diabetes, to see if it could be used in experimental therapy for the treatment of breast cancer. Ilona Ościłowska emphasised at the meeting with journalists that this is basic research, and she has been working on this topic for 11 years.
Ilona Ościłowska za pracę doktorską „Wpływ dostępności proliny na proces POX-zależnej apoptozy/autofagii w komórkach raka piersi MCF-7” realizowaną pod kierownictwem prof. dr hab. Jerzego Pałki otrzymała srebrny medal Scientia Nobilita w ramach konkursu Lidera Nauk Farmaceutycznych.
Magdalena Kusaczuk, PhD, focuses on the search for and testing of new potential pharmacotherapeutics for the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme of the brain.
"I am investigating various substances of both natural and synthetic origin in the context of their use as potential agents against glioblastoma multiforme of the brain. Currently available therapies are ineffective, hence the search for agents that will at least slow down the development of the disease", says Dr Kusaczuk. Magdalena Kusaczuk was the head of a grant from the National Science Centre and a winner of the Bekker Scholarship programme of the National Academic Exchange Agency, which included a research internship at the Complutense University in Madrid. She has also served as a supervisor in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education's Best of the Best 4.0 project and has received training at foreign research centres such as Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain and Imperial College London in the UK.
Prof. Wojciech Miltyk, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, summed up the meeting: We are delighted that the achievements of both ladies have been recognised, as the quality of science at the Medical University of Bialystok's Faculty of Pharmacy and Laboratory Medicine is high. I am also glad that the decision-makers and people from the scientific community who sat on the committee awarding the scholarships have also recognised this.
Scholarships for outstanding young scientists are awarded at UMB to: Dr Michał Burdukiewicz (from 2021), Dr Kinga Bondarczuk (from 2022), Dr Łukasz Szczerbiński (from 2022), Dr Łukasz Kuźma (from 2023), and from September, the following will also receive scholarships: Ilona Ościłowska, PhD, and Magdalena Kusaczuk, PhD.
