The Best Polish Invention award is ours!

In 2021, while still a doctoral student of Prof. Edyta Kostrzewa-Suslow, Dr. Agnieszka Krawczyk-Łebek won a grant to research new chlorine atom flavonoid compounds with potential antimicrobial activity. Using combined chemical and microbiological methods in obtaining new flavonoid glycosides with a chlorine atom and a methyl group, she came up with 38 new inventions. The young scientist received an award for them in the Student-Inventor competition, and they were also recognised in Geneva at the International Exhibition of Inventions. The Gold Medal and title of Best Polish Invention in Warsaw at the 16th International Exhibition of Inventions 'IWIS 2022' is yet another award for Dr. Krawczyk-Łebek, who admits that this is the best motivation for her work, but also gives her hope for commercialising and, in the long term, implementing the flavonoid compounds created during the biotransformation process into industry.

– Of course it's a long journey. Of the 38 submitted inventions, several have already been patented and proceedings are still underway at the Patent Office for the others. Research is currently underway to determine the biological activity of the obtained flavonoid derivatives, and then to select processes for optimisation and further development of the technology with regard to the isolated yield of biotransformation products – says Dr. Agnieszka Krawczyk-Łebek.

The new flavonoid glycosides obtained are flavonoid compounds with a chlorine atom or a methyl group, microbially glycosylated with entomopathogenic filamentous fungi - in order to improve their water solubility and bioavailability.

– Computer simulations of the activity of the newly obtained compounds have shown that they can have antimicrobial, chemopreventive, anti-tumour, liver-protective, and cardioprotective effects. This is why they are studied from various angles, including in cooperation with the Department of Physics and Biophysics, where the possibility of their interaction with biological membranes, which are the first natural barrier for these molecules to reach the interior of cells, is examined - explains Dr. Krawczyk-Łebek, adding that research on new compounds created during the biotransformation of flavonoids with a methyl group and a chlorine atom is also conducted in cooperation with the Silesian Medical University in Zabrze. – Their anti-tumour potential in cellular systems is analysed here – says Dr. Agnieszka Krawczyk-Łebek, emphasising that the new compounds are important in medicine, but also in dietary supplements.

In the summer of 2022 the scientist from the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences also began biological studies of compounds obtained in collaboration with the University of Porto, as part of the Erasmus+ programme and with the aim of determining the anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic and antioxidant activity of the compounds obtained. The next stage of research planned under the received Preludium grant is the preliminary testing of the antimicrobial activity of the obtained flavonoids against selected strains of pathogenic bacteria of the Escherichia coli and Staphyloccocus aureus species, and yeasts of the Candida albicans species, as well as against probiotic bacteria with beneficial effects on the digestive system. The research will assess whether the tested compounds are not only effective, but also safe.

– Our task, as scientists, is to prove that these newly biotransformed compounds have significant biological activity and thus potential for application – says the scientist from the Department of Food Chemistry and Biocatalysis.

The 16th edition of the International Exhibition of Inventions ‘IWIS 2022’ was organised by the Association of Polish Inventors and Rationalisers in cooperation with the International Federation of Inventors Associations IFIA, Poland's largest international exhibition dedicated to promoting ingenuity and innovation. Solutions from 15 countries, including Canada, China, Croatia, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine, the UK and Vietnam, were presented at the 16th edition. The inventors presented nearly 300 solutions from various scientific fields, some of which have ended up in industry while others are waiting to be implemented.

The main task of the IWIS International Exhibition of Inventions is to present the achievements of Polish scientists and inventors to domestic and foreign entrepreneurs and institutions, which creates opportunities for commercial agreements for the implementation of innovations into industry. Another important IWIS objective is to promote innovative attitudes and innovations.

The IWIS 2022 Grand Prix went to the Neurosphera Epilepsy, Neurology and Psychiatric Centre (Poland) and NEUROTERMINAL (Poland) for their ICTAL invention – a cybernetic, multi-criteria system for epilepsy diagnosis and therapy recommendation using machine learning and rule-based algorithms, and NEUROTERMINAL – a cloud-based, scalable system for remote epilepsy diagnosis and treatment, patient consultation and support implemented at the Neurosphera Centre.

The award for the best foreign invention at IWIS 2022 went to the King Abdulaziz University (Saudi Arabia) for generating energy from sand. The award for the IWIS 2022 Best National Invention went to the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences.

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