UPWr Doctoral School: Saving endangered species and the influence of age on fertility

When asked about the UPWr Doctoral School, Professor Wojciech Niżański openly admits that inspiring topics, good supervisors and co-supervisors from foreign centres are of key importance.

– We must forget about inbreeding, and instead of reproducing publications in kinship we should focus on the heterosis, i.e. biodiversity. Colloquially speaking, gene mixing is good not only in nature, but also in science, which is what we are all after – says the renowned European animal reproductive specialist, adding that the key to this diversity is building teams involving scientists from various countries and centres. Such teams facilitate inspiration, scientific surprise and new ideas, and from a pragmatic perspective they are also important in the science indicators of all the units involved.

Internationalisation – half the battle

– Internationalisation at the Doctoral School takes place on several levels. Firstly by the doctoral students themselves – in my field we have two students from Algeria and Nigeria. And secondly, of course, by the co-supervisors. Just as in the case of candidates for the school, also here we are looking for the best. The choice is important both for the doctoral theses themselves, but also for the evaluation of centres in which good, cited publications in renowned and highly rated journals will be prepared – says Prof. Niżański.

The co-supervisor of a doctoral thesis under the supervision of Prof. Małgorzata Ochota is a scientist from INRA, a world-renowned scientific institute in France. This level of cooperation is ideal, because it enables a symbiosis between basic scientists and clinicians. The topic covers issues related to advanced research techniques used in experiments on extracellular vesicles (EV-exocellular vesicles). We, as representatives of veterinary medicine, an inherently applied field, want to check whether these EVs improve the results of in vitro fertilisation and embryo maturation outside the female body. We conduct these activities in the context of saving endangered animal species using biotechnology. The topic of the doctoral student from Algeria is "Effects of extracellular vesicles and stem cells on embryo culture performance of embryos of extinct feline species".

The best scientists in their field

– This is one of the leading areas of reproductive research carried out by our team, and I wanted a very good co-supervisor. So I made a list of the best specialists in the world. And then I wrote an e-mail to Prof. Pascal Mermillaud from INRA, asking whether he would like to cooperate – says Prof. Wojciech Niżański, who received an answer from France very quickly. It turned out that the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences and its projects related to breeding and rescuing endangered feline species are well known and respected there.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS ARE HIGHLY VALUED, ALTHOUGH THEY ARE NOT A MUST, BUT INSTEAD IT IS ALSO GOOD TO BE A PARTICIPANT IN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES, TAKE PART IN PUBLIC PRESENTATIONS

– The professor wrote to me that he himself had a dozen doctoral students, but he proposed a scientist as well-known and respected as himself, Professor Yann Locatelli. In another doctoral dissertation under my supervision, the co-supervisor is Professor Alain Fontbonne from ENVA Maison Alfort Paris, Europe's mecca for clinical reproduction – says the head of the InnoWET Leading Research Group Innovative Diagnostics and Veterinary Therapy. Three days ago, Alain Fontbonne became head of the Department of Equine and Small Animal Reproduction.

The doctoral thesis under their supervision "Mechanisms of reproductive aging – studies on domestic dog (Canis familiaris) as model animal" – the commission chose the doctoral student from Nigeria for this project – concerns the impact of ageing on sperm quality and therefore on the health of the offspring of older fathers. As it turns out, there are many studies on the correlation between the age of an animal and its fertility, but no one has so extensively examined in animals how the paternal age affects the health of the offspring, the development of embryos and fetuses, phenotype features, etc. At the same time, the relationship between the age of the father and the fertility and health of the offspring, as well as the frequency of various diseases in children, is a topic that is widely studied in human medicine.

– This doctorate is therefore a reversal of the research model, because so far the animal model has been the reference point for research in the field of human medicine. This was and is so, for example, in the case of tumours of the mammary gland. This time, however, the human model is an inspiration for animals – explains Professor Niżański.

The doctoral student who will work on this project already has academic achievements, working at the University of Abuja as a senior assistant.

What are the requirements for a doctoral candidate?

– Here we go back to the first stage, which is the recruitment of doctoral students. We are looking for knowledge of foreign languages, scientific publications are highly valued, although they are not a must. Instead of them, it is good to be a participant in international conferences, take part in public presentations – lists Professor Niżański, admitting that all of these points are verified during the interview, because then it becomes clear whether the candidate for a doctoral student has knowledge of the topic they want to pursue. As the head of the Leading Research Group emphasises, this is also the moment when you can talk about whether a chosen doctoral thesis was a good decision.

– Because there is no room for experiments here, or using the trial and error method. This should be the first step of a well-thought-out scientific journey that a young person has started off on by deciding to study and commit themselves to – adds Prof. Niżański.

The third topic that will be covered by his team is "New way of chicken semen cryopreservation – a new insight into the mechanisms of cryodamages in sperm", and his supervisor from the Doctoral School will be Prof. Agnieszka Partyka, together with co-supervisor Prof. Manuel Hidalgo from the University of Cordoba. A candidate from Brazil did not get into the doctoral school, so Professor Partyka will be looking for another candidate, but she does not rule out the possibility of the same student applying again.

Supervisor at the Doctoral School – a mentor

– When we start recruitment to the Doctoral School, it is bit like a shop window. Doctoral dissertation topics will be presented as if displayed in a shop window, where candidates will decide if they find them attractive. Young people are smart. They know what to expect from a given topic and whether they will have opportunities to pursue their scientific dreams, and also take a first serious step in research work – says Professor Wojciech Niżański, recalling the Korean pastiche of Lady Gaga's hit song "Bad Romance". In a video available on YT, some lab workers are singing "Bad Project", so you just can't propose bad projects to doctoral students.

– And that's what it's all about – you can get lost in a bad lab on a bad project, and you can grow both scientifically and personally in a good lab on a good project. Interesting, innovative topics for doctoral theses, great doctoral students who pass the recruitment stages, and supervisors guaranteeing them a chance for development, i.e. good, creative and open-minded mentors – this is the key to the Doctoral School – emphasizes the chairman of the Discipline Council for Veterinary Science.