On February, 1st Directors of ICRI-BioM held a videoconference with Prof. Lucyna Woźniak, Vice-Rector for Research Strategy and International Relations at the Medical University of Lodz to discuss possible venues of future cooperation between the two institutions.  We hope for fruitful partnership.

Today the 2nd meeting of the International Scientific Committee took place, due to pandemics again in the form of the videoconference. The first part was devoted to current affairs and the information on the research carried out during the first part of the project, which ends formally on Feb. 28th. But the major part of this nearly five hours meeting was devoted to interviews of four candidates for principal investigator positions. We are looking forward to the results of the recruitment process.

Krzysztof Piechocki, Marcin Kozanecki, Jakub Saramak
Polymer 2020, 210, 122974

Today, the duties of the director of the International Center for Research on Innovative Biobased Materials (ICRI-BioM), embedded in the structure of our University, the only International Research Agenda in Łódź, have been assumed by Professor Alexander Steinbüchel. He obtained this function by winning an international competition announced, among others, in Nature and Euraxess.   Before taking up the challenge to developing our Center, Professor Steinbüchel worked at the University of Münster and King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). In 1983 he obtained his doctorate at the University of Göttingen and in 1991 he obtained his habilitation from the same university. He completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Rokefeller University in New York. The Professor's research interests are focused on molecular microbiology and biotechnology. He used these fields to explore the processes related to the production of biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates, biosynthesis and biotechnological production of polyamides, and the biodegradation of natural rubber and chemosynthetic polymers. He is currently continuing this topic in cooperation with the industry. During his extremely fruitful scientific career, he held a number of positions, including dean of the Faculty of Biology at his home university. He is the editor-in-chief of two scientific journals (Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, and AMB Express) and the Microbiology Monographs book series published by Springer since 2006. The Hirsch index of the Professor's publications is 77 and the number of citations exceeds 23,000.   Welcoming Professor Steinbüchel to the University, we wish him many successes in the development of our Center.

Wojciech Płonka, Agata Paneth and Piotr Paneth
Molecules 2020, 25, 4645

Krzysztof Piechocki, Marcin Kozanecki, Jakub Saramak, Water structure and hydration of polymer network in PMEO2MA hydrogels. Polymer 2020, 210, 122974

Congratulations to Professor Alexander Steinbüchel whose candidacy for the position of ICRI-BioM Director has been approved by the Foundation for Polish Science. Professor Steinbüchel will take his post on December 1st. 

With Dr. Agnieszka Krzemińska-Kowalska joining the R&D team work on binding hydrogen-bonded complexes started to progress rapidly. Today we enjoyed meeting with Prof. Jean-Didier Maréchal and José-Emilio Sánchez-Aparicio with whom we collaborate on using their GaudiMM platform.