Research Stay of Agata Mystkowska

During my research stay at the University of Victoria, I had the opportunity to work on my Ph.D. project, where I study how marine bacteria from the phylum Bacteroidetes recognize and bind polysaccharides in the ocean. Degradation of these important molecules as a relevant component of the global carbon cycle needs to be characterized in detail. In my Ph.D. project, I propose to analyze the three-dimensional structure of proteins and determine their binding affinity towards the polysaccharides.

I performed my research stay in the laboratory of Dr. Alisdair Boraston at the Biochemistry and Microbiology department at the University of Victoria in Canada. I met Dr. Boraston on the POMPU Meeting (Proteogenomics Of Marine Polysaccharide Utilization) in Greifswald, where I presented in the student session and he gave a talk as an external researcher. Dr. Boraston is a world-leading specialist in the analysis of structure and binding activity of carbohydrate binding proteins. Being able to join his lab for three months was a valuable step to build a good knowledge on structural biology. Moreover, I had the opportunity to learn an additional technic called isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), which allows determining the exact thermodynamic parameters of protein-carbohydrate interactions.

Working at a foreign University was also a very interesting experience. I attended weekly seminars at the Biochemistry and Microbiology department, where several of the talks were very directly connected to my scientific interests. The most inspiring one was by Prof. Monica M. Palcic who has been working for many years on structures and functions of glycosyltransferases- enzymes that are involved in the modification of polysaccharide’s structure. Moreover, I took part in a workshop organized by Office of Student Life (OSL) where I got familiar with a set of relaxation technics. Additionally, the research stay gave me the great opportunity to discover and experience a new country. Outside of work, I was exploring the astonishing nature of Vancouver Island.

I am very grateful for the opportunity of working on my project in the very inspiring environment at the group of Dr. Boraston. It was valuable for both - my professional as well as personal development. I am very grateful to GLOMAR for financial support, which enabled me to perform this research stay. Also, I would like to thank Al Boraston and my supervisor Jan-Hendrik Hehmann for giving me that opportunity.