From UPWr to TopMinds

• Aleksandra Zimmer: – I want to be prepared for what lies ahead.
• Marta Klemens: – I want to learn public speaking.
• Zuzanna Czekaj: – I'm looking for a way to achieve work-life balance.

This year's TopMinds mentoring programme included two doctoral students and a final-year veterinary student from the UPWr, all three of whom hope that working with mentors will help them find answers to the challenges they face.

Doctoral studies are just the beginning

Aleksandra Zimmer is in her third year at the Doctoral School, under the supervision of Prof. Krzysztof Lech, and her second supervisor is Dr. Klaudia Mastalerz. The topic of her PhD is the effect of pretreatment of raw material and solutions on the physicochemical properties and kinetics of osmotic dehydration and drying of garlic.

– In my master's thesis I dealt with designing functional foods for extreme tasks. A mining disaster is an example of such an event, i.e. a situation where miners are waiting for help underground, without access to food. With functional food they could survive much longer until the rescuers arrive. This is also food for cosmonauts, mountaineers, Himalayan climbers or cavers and speleologists, and anyone people exploring areas where various hazards may await them and they may lack access to food – says Alexandra, who became interested in garlic because of its abundance of health-promoting effects and what specialists call sensory issues.

– To be frank, we are often afraid to eat it because of the smell it leaves. This is a problem for many people, so we don't normally eat garlic before going to a party or the cinema. And one of my goals is to prepare garlic in such a way as to ensure that it's bioactivity remains high, but that it can be eaten before going to a meeting without the fear of making a bad impression – explains Aleksandra, who was accepted into the TopMinds programme in 2022, but ended up in a psychiatric hospital in April, halfway through last year's edition, with deep depression.

As the doctoral student says, in order to be fair to the other participants who made it through the entire 2022 edition, the organisers thought it best for her to take part in this year's edition.

– This situation is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, I think it's important to talk about depression out loud, because it's a very tough issue, and often the fear or shame that I myself felt before seeking professional help only worsens the problem. And secondly, nothing is more important than mental health – emphasises Aleksandra Zimmer, for whom it is now important to find her way to the 'post-doctorate' stage, because, as she stresses, it is important to remember that life will go on after she finishes her degree.

– Life does not end there, but rather a new phase begins, and it would be worthwhile to pursue a path that best fits the skills and barriers you have. My mentor is Prof. Izabela Sitkiewicz from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, who deals with the virulence of pathogenic bacteria. This is an area very different from what I deal with, but mentoring is not about dealing with the same things, but rather learning from each other's experiences – Aleksandra adds.

Professor Izabela Sitkiewicz obtained her PhD in biochemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and her habilitation and professorship at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Warsaw. After obtaining her doctoral degree, she spent 6 years in a post-doctoral internship in the USA. After returning to Poland in 2008 she worked at the National Institute of Medicines, where she headed the Department of Drug Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. From 2020 to 2021 she was Director of the Lukasiewicz-PORT Centre for Population Diagnostics, and she is currently working at the Centre for Translational Medicine at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. She is a Fulbright scholar and has been working with a number of laboratories in the US and Europe since 1997, such as the RML/NIAID/NIH and the Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX. During her career, she has been the manager, contractor and co-principal investigator of eight grants.

Dealing with Stress and Making Contacts

Marta Klemens began work on her PhD at the Doctoral School in October - in the Department of Food Chemistry and Biocatalysis. Under the supervision of Prof. Antoni Szumny she deals with drying as a method of shaping the quality of herbal raw material. Her associate supervisor is Dr. Jacek Łyczko, and her team also includes Natalia Pachura, who was recently awarded a research grant in the Preludium 21 competition.

– She is my senior colleague, and she supports me by providing good advice in moments of uncertainty – smiles Marta, adding that she also completed her master's thesis under the guidance of Prof. Szumny, hence her decision to choose him as her doctoral supervisor.

Marta applied to the TopMinds programme in October, during the first month of her PhD. As she now admits, she felt a little insecure and lost at the time, but her team supported her and encouraged her from the very beginning to take action, make new contacts, take on new challenges and even discuss new ideas widely.

– And that's why I'm applying to the TopMinds programme. I hope that this programme will allow me to broaden my horizons and develop on many levels. Everyone in the team brings with them their contacts, their work, their creativity. As I am at the beginning of my research journey I am learning from others right now, but I would also like to give something back. And that is why I would like this programme to be a step enabling me to contribute something from myself to my team – admits Marta Klemens, who admists that she would like to meet other young scientists and get to know new circles thanks to TopMinds. She also hopes that the programme will allow her to develop her diversity potential and that external mentoring will help her see the pros and cons of different ideas.

i In the application we had to write about our biggest problem. My Achilles heel is public speaking. I find it hard to manage my stress and present what I have prepared as I would like to. And I hope that during the meetings and workshops I will be able to control my stress, and get used to presenting in front of an unfamiliar group of people – says Marta, whose mentor is Prof. Marta Górna from the University of Warsaw, where she leads the Structural Biology Group at the Faculty of Chemistry and CNBCh. Professor Górna graduated in biotechnology in 2006, combining it with theoretical chemistry during her MISMaP studies at the University of Warsaw. She completed her PhD in biochemistry in 2010 at the University of Cambridge, followed by a 5-year postdoc at the Centre for Molecular Medicine in Vienna. From 2018 to 2021 she worked at WPD Pharmaceuticals on glioma drugs and was on the board of the Marie Curie Alumni Association. She also received a Fulbright STEM Impact Award, an EMBO Installation Grant and scholarships: the L'Oreal UNESCO Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women and Science, the MNiSW Fellowship for young outstanding scientists, and the European MSCA Individual Fellowship. Her team studies the function and structure of proteins, such as those that bind viral RNA, using crystallography and the revolutionary method of electron cryomicroscopy. It boasts two patent applications for its application projects: they are working on a completely new type of antibiotic, and methods to improve RNA sequencing and diagnostics of pathogens.

Finding the right balance

Zuzanna Czekaj is a fifth-year veterinary student. In September 2022 she became chair of the international IVSA Standing Committee on Veterinary Education, she is also president of the Faculty Council, she is active in the local branch of IVSA Wrocław, and she sits on the board of several students' clubs. During the inauguration of the 2022/2023 academic year she was awarded the 'Sapere Aude' statuette. Zuzanna admits that she was encouraged to take part in the TopMinds programme by friends from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the UPWr, who had participated in it and spoke very highly of it.

– I wanted to give it a try, especially that I really enjoy challenges, meetings and networking in general. And with the end of my studies approaching and a PhD on the horizon, I was looking for someone external to help me make a decision. It's important for me to know what I should pay attention to when considering a PhD at the Doctoral School, but also to think about other choices and opportunities – says Zuzanna, adding that alongside the decision to pursue a PhD, the reason for applying to the TopMinds programme was (and is) to learn to achieve work-life balance. Hence the choice of mentor, namely Prof. Urszula Marcinkowska-Trimboli, who in her presentation emphasised the importance of good work-life balance and the ability to combine the two realms.

– I can share different experiences of working and acting extensively with many people, but I think that with a lot of involvement in different projects it is also important to be able to relax – says Zuzanna with a smile.

Professor Urszula Marcinkowska-Trimboli is associated with the Colegium Medicum of the Jagiellonian University. She received her PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Turku in Finland, but did her postdoctoral training at the Institute of Public Health of the Jagiellonian University Collegium Medicum. She spent 2019 at Yale University and has been doing research on reproductive health and sexual preferences since 2020. Her most important achievement is becoming a university professor five years after completing her doctorate (all the more important as she became a mother of two children during the same period). She has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Liverpool, Helsinki, Strathclyde in Glasgow, and Charles University in Prague.

– My mentor, as you can see, does not specialise in veterinary medicine, but I am a big believer in interdisciplinarity in science, so acquiring contacts in other fields is very important to me. And I chose her not only because of her work-life balance, but also because she has accomplished a lot despite her young age – emphasises Zuzanna Czekaj. 

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  Veterinary students with an international scholarship

  Four UPWr students were among the recipients of the 2022 Veterinary Student Scholarship Program organised by MSD Animal Health and the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe.

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  EMBO scholarship for UPWr PhD student

  PhD student Mateusz Szczepańczyk has been awarded a Short-Term Fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organisation to travel to Prof. Michael Sauer's laboratory at BOKU in Vienna.