We end the year with another paper. Konrad Giżyński became a co-author in a paper:

A comprehensive toolkit for manipulation and analysis of sprouting capillary networks based on magnetic ordering of multiple EC-coated microcarriers and their use in tissue modelling and drug testing

Katarzyna Olga Rojek,   Antoni Wrzos,   Fabio Maiullari,   Konrad Gizynski,   Maria Grazia Ceraolo,   Claudia Bearzi,   Roberto Rizzi ,   Piotr Szymczak, Jan Guzowski  

Lab Chip, 2026

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2026/LC/D5LC00664C

We are pleased to announce that Aleksandra Zacheja was awarded first place in her category at the 52nd Review of Achievements of the SGGW Student Societies (2025).

The jury highly appreciated the application potential of her work, highlighting its innovative character and promising prospects for practical use.

Our 2024 Small paper was awarded during IChF`s competition for best paper! Congrats!

Visible Light‐Sensitive Sustainable Quantum Dot Crystals of Co/Mg Doped Natural Hydroxyapatite Possessing Antimicrobial Activity and Biocompatibility

Maleki‐Ghaleh, H.; Kamiński, B.; Moradpur‐Tari, E.; Raza, S.; Khanmohammadi, M.; Zbonikowski, R.; Sadegh Shakeri, M.; Siadati, M. H.; Akbari‐Fakhrabadi, A.; Paczesny, J.

Small, 2024, 2405708 (IF=13)

DOI: 10.1002/smll.202405708

We are pleased to announce that one of the candidates secured a postdoctoral position within the Ulam NAWA 2025 Programme in our group. This result places us among the host institutions selected in the latest edition of the programme, which supports the international mobility of outstanding researchers and strengthens the internationalisation of Polish science.

The awarded postdoctoral fellowship will enable the implementation of advanced research carried out by an incoming researcher from abroad, contributing to the development of our scientific activities and international collaborations.

We successfully secured funding within the SHENG project! We will start our Polish-Chinese project in February 2026.

https://www.ncn.gov.pl/konkursy/wyniki/2025-11-27-sheng-4

Together with a group led by Prof. Piyush Sharma, we successfully published another paper. Congratulations!

Targeted inactivation of bacteriophages by polypyrrole nanoparticles

Sada Raza, Dominik Korol, Enkhlin Ochirbat, Bartosz Kamiński, Maciej Cieplak, Piyush Sindhu Sharma, Jan Paczesny

Materials & Design, 260, 2025, 115204

Aleksander Piasecki, a master's student in the group, received the Rector's Scholarship of the Warsaw University of Technology. Congrats!

We welcome Jarosław Pankowski, PhD, to the group. Jarosław is a postdoc working on microbiology projects within the OPUS project.

Jan Paczesny delivered the opening lecture at the 54th National School of Chemistry “XeON”, held on 7–11 November 2025 in Karpicko near Wolsztyn. The event was organised by the Chemistry Students’ Scientific Society of the Faculty of Chemistry at Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) and brought together young chemists from across Poland.

As part of its involvement, the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS (IChF) co-funded an award for the best student research presentation, supporting excellence and early-stage scientific careers.

The School is closely connected with the activities of the Akademickie Stowarzyszenie Studentów Chemii (ASSChem), an informal nationwide association founded in 1994, uniting chemistry student scientific societies from universities across Poland and fostering collaboration, knowledge exchange, and scientific development among young researchers. Jan Paczesny attended the 27th and 28th Schools as a student.

Sada Raza defended (with honors) her PhD thesis entitled "Inactivation of bacteriophages". She started in the middle of the pandemic, settled in Poland, became a mom, and still made it on time. Congratulations!

Diana Szymielewicz joined the team as an intern. She will work for two months on the stability of bacteriophages.

We are happy to announce that Hossein has coauthored another paper! 

Nanostructured HAp–Ta₂O₅–MWCNT coatings on Ti-6Al-4 V by plasma electrolytic oxidation: A novel approach for advanced biomedical implants

Milad Hosseini, Jafar Khalil-Allafi, Yousef Ahmadkhanpour, Hossein Maleki-Ghaleh

Surfaces and Interfaces, 73, 2025, 107588

We are pleased to announce the results of the “Young Researchers IChF PAN” competition. Four group members were awarded!

Laureates in the category of young researchers with a doctoral degree: Katarzyna Rojek, Emilia Witkowska-Nery, Hossein Maleki Ghaleh, Magdalena Wiloch, Mateusz Pielach, Kamila Łępicka, Bartłomiej Bończak, Agata Błaziak, Faria Khan, Mykola Kravets.

Laureates in the category of PhD students: Muhammad Ans, Joanna Kruszyńska, Marek Czarnota, Aneta Magiera, Klaudia Staśkiewicz, Rafał Zbonikowski, Katarzyna Dusiło, Vishnu Anilkumar, Elżbieta Jarosińska, Sada Raza.

Warm congratulations to all the awardees! 

New papers from the group! Congrats to all authors.

Langmuir Nanoarchitectonics of Thermoresponsive Adaptive System of PNIPAM-Decorated Nanoparticles Induced by the Ionic Strength of the Subphase

Rafał Zbonikowski, Asghar Aryanfar, Michalina Iwan, Martin Presselt, Jan Paczesny

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 129 (29), 13406-13419 (IF=3.2)

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5c02555

The internal energy as a function of state parameters in steady and unsteady Poiseuille flows

Konrad Giżyński, Karol Makuch, Jan Paczesny, Paweł Żuk, Anna Maciołek, Robert Hołyst

Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics, 2025 (IF=4.2)

https://doi.org/10.1515/jnet-2025-0003

Green Tea Anti-Acanthamoeba Activity Regulated by Silver Nanoparticles

Ludmiła Szewczak, Mateusz Grotek, Julita Nowakowska, Mateusz Wdowiak, Jan Paczesny, Maria Doligalska

Parasitological Science, 2025

https://www.sciltp.com/journals/parsci/articles/2508001071

The "Living Materials" Group members participated in the 2025 Fall Meeting of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) that took place from September 15 to 18, 2025, at the main campus of the University of Technology in Warsaw (Poland). 

Symposium N "Thin Film, Flexible and Composite Materials and Their Formation Techniques: Synthesis and Characterization of Functional Nano Composite Material"

* Jan Paczesny - invited talk "Nanomaterials for Antimicrobial and Antiviral Applications: From Surface Engineering to Selective Biocontrol"

* Bartek Bończak - talk "Engineering nanoparticles-based and polymer-based anti-phage materials"

* Bartek Kamiński - talk "Illuminating Antimicrobial Defense: Quantum Dot Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles with Light Sensitivity and Antimicrobial Properties"

Symposium S "Electronic, Photonic, Nano, Low-Dimensional and Quantum Materials Nanomaterials of the Future: Advancements in Energy and Sensing"

* Jan Paczesny - talk "From unusual building blocks to responsive 2D systems at the air/water interface"

* Enkhlin Ochirbat - talk "Array-based Polymer-Phage Biosensors for Detection and Differentiation of Bacteria"

Symposium T "Electronic, Photonic, Nano, Low-Dimensional and Quantum Materials Smart Materials for Nanoelectronics - Nanophotonics & European Doctorate Network: Pcam (Physics And Chemistry of Advanced Materials) Summer School 2025"

* Gunjan Tiwari - talk "A finer approach towards 1D microparticle chains formation: methods, mechanisms, and applications"

Posters

* Natalia Szczepańska - "Inorganic nanolayers of noble metals and their compounds"

* Ziba Dargahi - "Sonochemical Synthesis of Cobalt-Doped BaTiO_ Nanoparticles for Enhanced Visible-Light Photocatalysis"

* Hossein Maleki Ghaleh - "Magnetopiezoelectric Biopolymer Nanocomposites with Quantum Dot Crystals: A Novel Approach for Neural Tissue Engineering"

Bartek Bończak received an award for the best oral presentation. Congrats!

Hossein Maleki-Ghaleh (Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences) took part in the Biofabrication 2025 Conference, presenting the talk: “3D Printed Polycaprolactone/Copper-Doped Natural Hydroxyapatite Quantum-Dots Nanocomposite with Superior Osteogenic and Angiogenic Performance in Bone Tissue Engineering”. More information about the conference is available at biofabrication2025.org.

Prof. Jan Paczesny gave an invited talk during the 1st Polish-Italian Conference on Chemistry, Materials and Biomedicine (CMB), held from 17 to 19 September 2025 in Rome. More information about the conference can be found here.

The view is from the window of the venue - the weather was wonderful and Rome is beautiful. Still, the lectures were amazing and everyone enjoyed listening to the talks.

On 1 September 2025, our team began a new OPUS 28 grant funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (2024/55/B/ST5/02500) entitled: “Controlling Reaction-Diffusion Mechanisms for Advanced Self-Assembled Architectures: Periodic Precipitation and Chemical Gardens”.

We are looking for a postdoc and an MSc student. More info here.

The 49th Congress of Polish Physicists was held in Katowice from 5–11 September 2025, organised by the Polish Physical Society and the University of Silesia in Katowice. Prof. Jan Paczesny gave an invited talk during the "Biophysics" session. More information here.

At the IV Bacteriophage Symposium in Gdańsk (4–6 September 2025), Prof. Jan Paczesny gave the inauguration talk. Enkhlin Ochirbat and Bartek Kamiński presented posters. Bartek Kamiński won an award for his poster presentation. Congrats!

Prof. Jan Paczesny and Bartek Kamiński attended the 26th Biennial Evergreen Phage Meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee (USA). Prof. Paczesny gave a talk, while Bartek Kamiński presented a poster. More information about the conference can be found here.

Aleksandra Zacheja is going for an Erasmus scholarship to Lund, Sweden. She will work for a month in the group of Prof. Magnus Gram. When Magnus was a PhD student, he also supervised Jan Paczesny`s work (also within Erasmus).

Kacia Rudko went to Japan within an Erasmus program. She will work in the lab of Prof. Toshinari Maeda at Kyushu Institute of Technology.

Mateusz Grotek defended his thesis. He got an A! Dr Barbara Szczęśniak acted as supervisor and Jan Paczesny and Joanna Dolińska (IChF) supported Mateusz in his work. 

The title of the thesis: "Synteza mikrocząstek i badanie ich zdolności do samoorganizacji w zewnętrznym polu magnetycznym w celu tworzenia hydrodynamicznych układów o właściwościach memrystywnych"

Alma Mater: Warsaw Military University

Bartek Bończak is back as a postdoc. He completed his contract in Milan and is now working within the OPUS 2022/45/B/ST5/01500 grant! Welcome!

On 11 June 2025, the official inauguration of the National Bioimaging Center BioPixel took place on the Nencki Institute campus in Mikołajki. The event marked the opening of a unique research infrastructure, developed by the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology (PAS) in consortium with PCSS and IChB PAN in Poznań.

The inauguration ceremony gathered representatives of science, public administration, and industry, including Prof. Maria Mrówczyńska (Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education), Prof. Marek Konarzewski (President of PAS), and leaders of Polish research institutes and universities. Jan Paczesny, Deputy Director of IChF, took part in the opening ceremony on behalf of the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS.

Pic - Nencki Institute

At the end of May 2025, we had the pleasure of hosting Prof. Jaroslav Katona (University of Novi Sad, Serbia), who visited our institute and delivered two inspiring lectures.

• 29 May 2025, 10:00 — Excellent Chemistry Lecture, Cluster 1, IChF Aula
  Functional colloids

• 30 May 2025, 9:30 — Joint Friday Morning Electrochemistry and Living Materials Tutorial Seminar, conference room
  Biopolymer nanoparticles obtained by agri-food waste valorization

Prof. Katona’s talks attracted a broad audience and sparked lively discussions on colloid science, sustainable materials, and the valorization of agri-food waste.

June is a very exciting month for the team. We have published a number of papers!

Microplastics of Broad Size Range Reduce Bacteriophage Activity in Aqueous Environments

Enkhlin Ochirbat, Rafał Zbonikowski, Michał Folga, Magdalena Bonarowska, Jan Paczesny

J. Phys. Chem. B 2025, 129, 24, 6100–6110 (IF=2.9) https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.5c01316

Unraveling the Influence of the Anchored Headgroup and Ligand Tail Group Length on the Self-Assembly of ZnO NCs at the Air–Water Interface

Aleksandra Borkenhagen, Małgorzata Wolska-Pietkiewicz, Ilona Binkiewicz, Łukasz Richter, Rafał Zbonikowski, Jan Paczesny, Janusz Lewiński

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2025, 17, 24, 36212–36225 (IF=8.2) https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsami.5c07324

Synergistic co-assembly of nanoparticles on patterned polyelectrolyte surfaces via magnetic and electrostatic interactions

Tomasz Mazur, Łukasz Mazur, Dorota Lachowicz, Aleksander Piasecki, Konrad Giżyński, Michał Szuwarzyński

Journal of Molecular Liquids, 2025, 433, 127959 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molliq.2025.127959

Amino Acid–Based Self-Assembled Supramolecular Structures: From Pathological Implications to Biomedical Applications

Pooja Sharma, Prabhjot Singh, Neelam, Nishima Wangoo

ChemBioChem 2500228. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202500228

Modeling breast cancer dynamics through modulable small Vessel Environment Bioreactor (sVEB)

Fabio Maiullari, Maria Grazia Ceraolo, Dario Presutti, Nicole Fratini, Matteo Galbiati, Alessandra Fasciani, Konrad Giżyński, Salma Bousselmi, Francesca Megiorni, Cinzia Marchese, Piotr Kasprzycki, Karol Karnowski, Alessandro Talone, Gaspare Varvaro, Davide Peddis, Marco Costantini, Claudia Bearzi, Roberto Rizzi

Biomaterials, 2025, 123441 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2025.123441

Congratulations to all coauthors!

Gunjan published her first paper! Congrats! The work is a collaborative effort with the group of Prof. Rozynek from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.

A simple and scalable method to create beaded chains of conductive microparticles, 1D structures with unique physical properties and promising applications, was developed. Using a liquid meniscus at the tip of an electrode, we electrically extract and assemble particles into freestanding chains. Our study reveals the key physical factors affecting structure formation and stability, enabling reliable fabrication. This breakthrough lays the groundwork for practical applications in electronics, soft robotics, and additive manufacturing.

Single-Particle-Thick Microstructures Fabricated through Controlled Withdrawal of Particles from a Dispersion Meniscus

Harkavyi, Y.; Tiwari, G.; Rozynek, Z.

Mater. Des. 2025, 255, 114160, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2025.114160

This has been a very intensive month for us so far. Yet another paper has been accepted! 

Phage/nanoparticle cocktails for a biocompatible and environmentally friendly antibacterial therapy

Mateusz Wdowiak, Sada Raza, Mateusz Grotek, Rafał Zbonikowski, Julita Nowakowska, Maria Doligalska, Ningjing Cai, Zhi Luo, Jan Paczesny

Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 2025, 109, 129 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00253-025-13526-x

New publication in Soft Matter!

We are pleased to announce that a new article has been published in the journal Soft Matter, resulting from a collaboration between the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IChF PAN), Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (UAM), and CADENAS P.S.A.

The publication, titled “Experimental and FEM simulation study of compressive deformation of solder microballs and particle chains”, was co-authored by Mr. Yaroslav Harkavyi (Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, UAM), Dr. Konrad Giżyński (IChF PAN, Living Materials group) and Prof. Zbigniew Rozynek (UAM/CADENAS P.S.A.).

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of how individual solder microballs and aligned particle chains respond to compressive loading, combining detailed experimental force–deformation measurements with finite-element simulations. In particular, Dr. Giżyński led the FEM modelling using the Johnson–Cook material law to capture the effects of strain rate and temperature on deformation behaviour.

You can read the full article here:
https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SM01499E

Congratulations to all the authors — we look forward to seeing how these findings will inform the design of next-generation microstructured electronic components.

We are on roll! The next paper coming from the group is out. Congrats!

Protecting Bacteriophages Under UV Irradiation with Brilliant Blue FCF for Targeted Bacterial Control

Wdowiak, M., Magiera, A., Tomczyńska, M., Adamkiewicz, W., Stellacci, F., Paczesny, J.
Biofilm, 2025, 9, 100286 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bioflm.2025.100286

Yet another paper from the group! 

Engineering Hydrophobic and Electrostatic Interactions for Selective Inactivation of Bacteriophages by Mixed-Ligand Nanoparticles

Raza, S.; Mente, P.; Kamiński, B.; Bończak, B.; Maleki-Ghaleh, H.; Vignesh, V.; Paczesny, J.
Nanoscale, 2025, 17, 12929-12936 https://doi.org/10.1039/D5NR00612K

Rafał  Zbonikowski published a paper! Congrats!

What influences the number of citations of scientific articles? Study on colloid and interface science

Zbonikowski, R.
Scientometrics, 2025, 130, 2577–2593 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-025-05311-4

New publication in Materials & Design!

We are pleased to announce that a new article has been published in the prestigious journal Materials & Design, resulting from a collaboration between the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IChF PAN) and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

The publication, titled “Fabrication of a new type of electrically conductive micro-tracks via mechanical compression of beaded structures”, was co-authored by Dr. Konrad Giżyński (IChF PAN, Living Materials group), Prof. Zbigniew Rozynek (CADENAS p.s.a. / UAM), and PhD student at UAM, Mr. Yaroslav Harkavyi.

The article presents an innovative approach to fabricating electrically conductive micro-tracks using mechanically compressed beaded structures made of microparticles. Our collaborator, Dr. Giżyński, was responsible for the computer simulations of the phenomenon described in the paper.

We invite you to read the full article at:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127525004058

Congratulations to all the Authors — we wish you continued research success!

Exciting news! Our study on how microplastics impact bacteriophage activity was named a Top Viewed Article in the Journal of Environmental Quality — a great recognition of our team’s contribution to environmental virology and pollutant research. We’re grateful to all the authors for their valuable efforts and collaboration on this work.

Jan Paczesny gave invited talk during The Eighteenth Japan-Korea Joint Symposium on Bio-microsensing Technology (18th JKBT) focusing on "Next-Generation Biotechnology in An Era of Dramatic Change". The event wass held in Kitakiyushiu (Japan) but Jan was connected online ( : (  )

We welcome undergrad student to the group - Aleksandra Zacheja. Aleksandra is working with Bartek Kamiński on antiviral agents.

We're thrilled to announce that another paper has just been published!

The Activity of Indigo Carmine against Bacteriophages: An Edible Antiphage Agent

Raza, S.; Bończak, B.; Atamas, N.; Karpińska, A.; Ratajczyk, T.; Łoś, M.; Hołyst, R.; Paczesny
Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol., 2025, 109, 24 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-025-13414-4

We bid farewell to Ashley, who has completed her Erasmus internship with the group. However, her project will continue in collaboration with our partners in Czechia!

In January, an article by Bartek Kamiński was published, presenting research he conducted under the supervision of Dr. Marcin Lindner at the Institute of Organic Chemistry as part of his master’s thesis. The work focused on designing new efficient emitters for OLED devices. Congrats!

Mixed Emission of Acenaphtho[1,2- b ] Quinoxaline Regioisomers

Kumar, D., Bartkowski, K., Kamiński, B., Masoumifeshani, E., Ślęczkowski, P., Kubas, A., Data, P., Lindner, M.
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c06867

Konrad coauthored a new piece. Congrats!

Global non-equilibrium thermodynamics for steady states like never before

Robert Holyst, Konrad Giżyński, Anna Maciołek, Karol Makuch, Jakub Wróbel and Paweł J. Żuk

Europhysics Letters  DOI 10.1209/0295-5075/ada182

We went through the verification and cataloging of the team`s assets. This would not have been possible if not for Aleksandra Ferenc Mrozek, Rafał Zbonikowsk, and Natalia Szczepańska.

We missed to inform about some of Enkhlin`s achievements this year! We are fixing it now!

February: 

Enkhlin returned from a six-month internship at the Rotello Lab, University of Massachusetts, Amhrest. During her time there, she focused on developing an innovative polymer-phage sensor for detecting and differentiating bacteria.

July: 

Enkhlin participated in the "Viruses of Microbes 2024" conference held in Cairns, Australia. She presented a poster showcasing her work on an array-based polymer-phage biosensor designed for bacteria detection and differentiation.

Sada Raza received the Best Poster Award for her innovative technology and impactful presentation during NanoBioTech-Montreux Conference 2024! Congrats!

Sada Raza and Bartosz Kaminski, PhD students from our team, presented their research at the NanoBiotech-Montreux conference (10.11.2024 – 13.11.2024). Sada showcased her poster on 

"Unveiling the Potential of Mixed-Ligand Nanoparticles: Targeted Bacteriophage Inactivation", 

while Bartosz presented his work on 

"Illuminating Antimicrobial Defense: Quantum Dot Hydroxyapatite Nanoparticles with Light Sensitivity and Antimicrobial Properties".

Jan Paczesny visited Novi Sad, Serbia, as a lecturer. He delivered a series of lectures on phages in nanotechnology. There are new cooperations on the horizon - with Prof. Jaroslav Katona and Prof. Milan Vranes. Stay tuned for updates!

The campus of the University of Novi Sad is super cool! 

Hossein published two new papers recently. Congrats!

Highly efficient magnesium ferrite/graphene nano-heterostructure for visible-light photocatalytic applications: Experimental and first-principles DFT studies

Hossein Maleki-Ghaleh, Ehsan Moradpur-Tari, Mohammad Shakiba, Ehsan Ghasali, Ziba Dargahi, Danial Norouzi Arator, Yashar Behnamian, Ali Fallah, Ali Zarrabi, Ermia Aghaie, Pariya Yardani Sefidi, Mir Ghasem Hosseini, Ali Akbari-Fakhrabadi, Hamid Omidvar, M Hossein Siadati

Sustainable Materials and Technologies, e01159

Recent advancements in MXenes Synthesis, Properties, and Cutting-Edge Applications: A Comprehensive Review

Kahila Baghchesaraee, Ehsan Ghasali, Saleem Raza, Andrii Babenko, Giti Paimard, Tariq Bashir, Hossein Maleki-Ghaleh, Li Jie, Yasin Orooji

Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering

Natalia passed her PhD entry exam, and now she is a PhD student in the Living Materials group! 

Bartek Kamiński passed his mid-term evaluation with flying colors! Congrats! 

Ashley George joined the group as an Erasmus PhD student! Ashley came from University of Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Prague, Czechia! Ashley will work on phage-nano hybrids.

Natalia Szczepańska defended her master thesis on 27.09.2024. Prof. Izabela Madura acted as supervisor and Jan Paczesny as tutor. Congrats!

Title: "Responsive nanocoatings and thin films for applications in catalysis and as antimicrobial agents".

Enkhlin Ochirbat participated in the 4th edition of the eSPARK International Summer School on Experimental Electrochemistry that took place from the 22nd – 29th of September 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. We embrace new skills! 

Results of competition "Young Researchers of the IPC PAS". 

Sada Raza

Rafał Zbonikowski 

Mateusz Wdowiak 

were awarded! Congratulations!

Mateusz Wdowiak defended his thesis entitled: "Stabilization of bacteriophages against adverse conditions". The Reviewers, Prof. Anna Dembska, Prof. Artur Krężeł and Prof. Robert Czajkowski, all suggested to distinguish the work with the honorary mention. Congratulations! 

Mateusz is now starting his post doc at Warsaw University. 

Jan Paczesny attended in the 66th Scientific Meeting of the Polish Chemical Society. Poznań, 15-20.09.2024. He delivered a lecture entitled: "From unusual building blocks to responsive 2D systems at the air/water interface".

Rafał, Gunjan, and Hossein had the opportunity to attend the EMRS 2024 Fall Meeting, hosted in the iconic main hall of Warsaw University of Technology. The science-oriented discussion were very inspiring!

Jan Paczesny attended the 3rd Bacteriophage Symposium in Gdańsk from 5th to 7th of September. He delivered a lecture entitled "Physico-chemical studies of bacteriophage-based systems". 

We welcome Klaudia (Warsaw Univ. of Technology) and Katia (The Warsaw University of Life Sciences) for the summer internship. Klaudia will work on antivirial agents and Katia is supporting Enkhlin`s project on bacterial sensing. Welcome!

Yet another paper! 

Technology and research on the influence of liquid crystal cladding doped with magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles on light propagation in an optical taper sensor

Michał Niewczas, Karol A Stasiewicz, Natalia Przybysz, Anna Pakuła, Jan Paczesny, Rafał Zbonikowski, Jerzy Dziaduszek, Przemysław Kula, Leszek R Jaroszewicz

Advanced Optical Technologies, 2024, 13, 1422695

https://doi.org/10.3389/aot.2024.1422695

New paper! 

Kusior, A.; Mazurkow, J.; Jelen, P.; Bik, M.; Raza, S.; Wdowiak, M.; Nikiforov, K.; Paczesny, J. 

"Copper Oxide Electrochemical Deposition to Create Antiviral and Antibacterial Nanocoatings".

Published in Langmuir (July 9th, 2024).

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c00642

Our PhD student Mateusz Wdowiak participated at the 48th FEBS Congress in Milan, Italy (29.06-03.07.2024). The scientific poster he presented discussed the use of sulfonic compounds, with an emphasis on selective, efficient, and biocompatible agents stabilizing bacteriophages from UV irradiation,

We extend sincere congratulations to our Assistant Professor Konrad Giżyński for successfully securing a grant from the Joint Transnational Call 2022 Water4All - Partnership, co-funded by the European Union within the Horizon Europe programme. The funding for Polish partner (IChF)  will be covered by Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju (NCBR). The project, titled "Ultra-sensitive optical sensor system for simultaneous, in-situ detection of multiple pesticides in surface and ground waters," will be carried out in collaboration with partners from: the Technical University of Denmark (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet - DTU), the Dublin City University (DCU) in Ireland, the National Institute of Materials Physics and the IMT-Bucharest in Romania, and Sintef AS in Norway.

Polish Patent Office granted us the patent for the invention entitled: "Application of sodium salt of 5,5′-indygodisulfonic acid to inhibit bacteriophage infection in biotechnological processes"

Sada Raza, Jan Paczesny Bartłomiej Bończak, Marcin Łoś

P.441746, submission: 2022-07-15, granted: 2024-03-20

Hossein published a paper! Congrats!

Hossein Maleki-Ghaleh,* Ehsan Moradpur-Tari, Mohammad Shakiba, Jan Paczesny, Paul K Hurley, M Hossein Siadati, Lida Ansari, Farzan Gity*

Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids, 2024, just accepted, (IF=4)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022369724001392

Bartek and Enkhlin attended (18.03 to 21.03) the Doctoral Seminar organized by the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology. This visit is the next step in building the partnership between IChF and Leibniz-IPHT.

Iraj Alipourfard joined the team! Iraj is medical doctor, pharmacist and biologist, all in one! He will work within OPUS 2022/45/B/ST5/01500 "Antiviral nanoparticles and polymers to selectively fight phage infections without harming bacteria and eukaryotic cells". Welcome!

Witold Adamkiewicz was a guest in Radio WNET on 01.02.2024. You can hear it here!

Sada and Enkhlin are back! We are welcome you after breaks! 

We congratulate Sada on having lovely twins! :) 

Review published in Pathogenes authored by Bartek Kamiński and Jan Paczesny. Congrats!

Bacteriophage Challenges in Industrial Processes: A Historical Unveiling and Future Outlook

Bartosz Kamiński, Jan Paczesny*

Pathogens 2024, 13 (2), 152 (IF=3.7)

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/13/2/152

Microsymposium in IChF PAN. We presented our results and discussed with collegues from other teams. It was fun!

Konrad Giżyński coauthored set of papers in 2023! Congrats!

Fundamental Relation for Gas of Interacting Particles in a Heat Flow

Hołyst, Robert; Makuch, Karol; Giżyński, Konrad; Maciołek, Anna; Żuk, Paweł J,, Entropy, 2023, 25 (9), 1295, 10.3390/e25091295

Fundamental Relation for the Ideal Gas in the Gravitational Field and Heat Flow

Hołyst, Robert; Żuk, Paweł J; Makuch, Karol; Maciołek,   Anna; Giżyński, Konrad, Entropy, 2023, 25 (11), 1483, 10.3390/e25111483

Parameters of State in the Global Thermodynamics of Binary Ideal Gas Mixtures in a Stationary Heat Flow

Maciołek, Anna; Hołyst, Robert; Makuch, Karol; Giżyński, Konrad; Żuk, Paweł J., Entropy, 2023, 25 (11), 1505, 10.3390/e25111505

Steady-state thermodynamics of a system with heat and mass flow coupling

Makuch, Karol; Hołyst, Robert; Giżyński, Konrad; Maciołek, Anna; Żuk, Paweł J., The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2023, 159 (19), 194113, 10.1063/5.0170079

Our review in Antibiotics is among most notable papers published in the journal.

Natasha Atamas published papers! Congrats!

Structure and Dynamic Inhomogeneity of Liquids on the Liquid–Gas Coexistence Curve Near the Triple Point

N. O.   Atamas, K. S. Yablochkova, D. A. Gavryushenko M. M. Lazarenko, Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11669-023-01070-y

Relaxation, temporal diffusion, and polarity of aromatic hydrocarbons in ionic liquid

N. O. Atamas, K. S. Yablochkova, M. M. Lazarenko, G. Taranyik, Applied   Nanoscience, 2023 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-022-02696-z

Liquids clathrate formation and the diffusion model for aromatics hydrocarbons in   ionic liquids

N.O. Atamas, K.S. Yablochkova, I.P. Matushko, M.M. Lazarenko, Fluid   Phase Equilibria, 2024, 113951, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fluid.2023.113951

On December, 19th, 2023 Jan Paczesny and Mateusz Wdowiak were guests of Łukasz Badowski in RDC auditon entitled "Z innej planety". Topic: tea-based silver nanoparticles. https://www.rdc.pl/podcast/z-innej-planety_fY7TF0S0caRGGuoABNJe?episode=tFzTjliyF5H2yM70rqGK 

Meeting between IChF PAN and Leibniz-IPHT in Jena, Germany. Jan Paczesny gave talk describing the Living Materials group in order to boost the international cooperation on dynamic thin films.

Mateusz Wdowiak attended conference. 

Press release about TeaNPs. Read more here.

Jan Paczesny took part in a meeting with ERC Executive Agency in Brussels.

Dr Konrad Giżyński together with Dr Tomasz Andryszewski encourage kids to like science! They are presenting the amazing chemical show to joungsters from kinergartens and schools.

Our review paper was mentioned as one the most notable reviews published in the first half of 2023 in Nanomaterials!

From 3rd to 7th of November, Rafał Zbonikowski and Natalia Szczepańska attended 11th International Workshop on Surface Modification for Chemical and Biochemical Sensing (picture from SMCBS archive).

Natalia presented a poster entitled

 ”Fully Inorganic Nanocoatings for Antibacterial and Catalytical Applications”, 

and Rafał gave a talk about 

”Interfacial Colloidal Stimuli-responsive System Composed of Nanoparticles Decorated with Poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAM)”. 

Hoping to see you at the 12th edition!

Jan Paczesny attended (13.10 to 15.10) the meeting celebrating 100 years of active work of the Scientific Association of Chemists at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Janek is an honorary member of the association. He gave a lecture about the Living Materials team research. This was a fabulous opportunity to meet after so many years!

Picture - NKCh archives by Agata Warlich.

On the 13th of October, Michał Folga obtained his MSc degree for his work done in our group. Warsaw University of Technology awarded the degree, and Prof. Mariusz Pietrzak acted as supervisor.

On the 6th of October Mateusz Wdowiak and Rafał Zbonikowski participated in the Warsaw Soft Matter Day, an PD2PI initiative merging physicists, chemists and biologists working on topics related also to living materials.

Mateusz gave a talk on 

“Protein-binding dyes as molecular sunscreen protecting bacteriophages from UV radiation”,

 and Rafał presented a poster:

“Interfacial colloidal dynamic self-assembly system composed of nanoparticles decorated with poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAM)”.

Dr hab. Adam Kubas appointed as the new director of the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS. Prof. Kubas appointed Prof. Paczesny as deputy director for the scientific affairs. The picture shows reaction of Prof. Paczesny when he was offered the position :)

We also welcome Hossein Maleki-Ghaleh - new post doc in the group. Hossein is involved in the realization of OPUS 2022/45/B/ST5/01500 "Antiviral nanoparticles and polymers to selectively fight phage infections without harming bacteria and eukaryotic cells".

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4TQzNw8AAAAJ&hl=en

We welcom Gunjan Tiwari - new PhD student in the group. Gunjan will work in appliction of the electric field in physical chemistry.

Mateusz Grotek received Scholarship for best students at Warsaw Military University in Warsaw. He was awarded the Rector's scholarship for outstanding academic achievements. After comparing the number of ranking points obtained by all applicants, Mateusz was classified to the group of top 9% of the best students of the academic year. CONGRATS!

Sada Raza and Jan Paczesny coauthored chapter for the book entitled "Nanoscience" published by RSC!

https://books.rsc.org/books/book/2132/NanoscienceVolume-9

On September, 26th, 2023, Jan Paczesny was a guest of Łukasz Badowski in RDC auditon entitled "Z innej planety". Janek talked about phages and microplastics. 

https://www.rdc.pl/podcast/z-innej-planety_fY7TF0S0caRGGuoABNJe?episode=0JHjAuUAUZSmexcQghSP

Jan Paczesny gave lecture on Ethics in research durign conference organized by the Institute of Organic Chemistry PAS in Warsaw

Jan Paczesny attended 2nd Bacteriophage Symposium, Gdańsk, September 7-9, 2023. He is a founding member of Polish Society for Research on Viruses of Microorganisms.

We welcome Dr Prabhjot Singh! He is involved in the project OPUS 2019/35/B/ST5/03229 “Dynamic and responsive Langmuir-Blodgett films”. 

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yBZ8IQIAAAAJ&hl=en

New paper! This is a results of collaboration of Bartek Bończak and Jan Paczesny with the group of Prof. Prochowicz. 

Molecular Engineering of Azahomofullerene-based Electron Transporting Materials for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells

Rohit D Chavan, Bartłomiej Bończak, Joanna Kruszyńska, Apurba Mahapatra, Muhammad Ans, Jan Nawrocki, Kostiantyn Nikiforow, Pankaj Yadav, Jan Paczesny, Faranak Sadegh, Muhittin Unal, Seckin Akin, Daniel Prochowicz

Chemistry of Materials, 2023

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c01995

On 01/06-01/09, the qualifying rounds for the first edition of the national competition "Chemkaton" organized by the AGH University of Krakow for first- and second-cycle students of chemistry studies were held. Mateusz Grotek, undergrad student in our group, together with members of the team representing Military University of Technology, qualified to the final along with 7 other teams.

New paper is out! 

Enhancing the antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles against ESKAPE bacteria and emerging fungal pathogens by using tea extracts

Sada Raza, Mateusz Wdowiak, Mateusz Grotek, Witold Adamkiewicz, Kostiantyn Nikiforow, Pumza Mente, Jan Paczesny

Nanoscale Advances, 2023

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/NA/D3NA00220A

We welcome new PhD student to the group! Bartosz Kamiński joined our new OPUS project and will work on novel antiviral agents.

Enkhlin joined Professor Vincent Rotello group at Department of Chemistry, UMass Amherst for six months internship within NAWA/NCN project. We are waiting for fascinating results! Enkhlin - no pressure! :)

Our PhD student Mateusz Wdowiak participated at 10th Congress of European Microbiologists FEMS 2023 in Hamburg, Germany (9-13.07.2023). The scientific poster he presented discussed a novel design for the usage of silver nanoparticles synthesized with tea extracts (TeaNPs) against emerging bacterial and fungal pathogens".

We welcome new interns in the lab! Magdalena Tomczyńska and Aleksander Piasecki joined the group for the summer internship. 

We got a new cover - ACS Omega!

Our PhD student Mateusz Wdowiak participated at XXII Krajowa Konferecja Elektroniki in Darłowo, Poland (11-15.06.2023). His talk entitled "Wykorzystanie warstw światłowodowych i bakteriofagów do wykrywania bakterii patogennych" was awarded in the session "Optyka zintegrowana - modelowanie, technologie i charakteryzacje".

Enkhlin Ochirbat went for a short internship to Gdańsk to work in Phage Consultants labs.

With a delay we inform that our wonderful undergrad student is no longer an undergrad student! Natalia Szczepańska defended her engineering degree at Warsaw University of Technology (supervisor Professor Izabela Madura),

Natalia is now conducting research work as a foundation for the master degree. 

Aleksandra Ferenc - Mrozek joined IPC PAS as a lab manager. Ola shares her time between three groups. Welcome!

New press released about our paper "Heteroaggregation of virions and microplastics reduces the number of active bacteriophages in aqueous environments" published in Journal of Environmental Quality is out!  You can read it here!

Paper accepted! 

Stimuli-responsive Langmuir Films Composed of Nanoparticles Decorated with Poly(N-isopropyl Acrylamide) (PNIPAM) at the Air/Water Interface

Rafał Zbonikowski, Michalina Iwan, Jan Paczesny

ACS Omega, just accepted

Conference time! Jan Paczesny attended The 21st Annual Meeting of Society of Nano Science and Technology in Hakodate, Japan. He talked about stabilization of viruses.

We invite everyone to check the new series of lectures - "Breaking barriers - physical chemistry in biological systems".

09.05.2023, 13:00, Prof. Rienk Eelkema, Delft University of Technology

16.05.2023, 11:00, Prof. Lee Cronin, University of Glasgow

23.05.2023, 12:00, Prof. Petra Schwille, Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry

30.05.2023, 11:00, Prof. Alex Evilevitch, Lund University

30.05.2023, 16:00, Prof. Vincent Rotello, University of Massachusetts Amherst

06.06.2023, 11:00, Prof. Maciej Wojtkowski, IChF & ICTER

More details and links are available here!

Our PhD student Mateusz Wdowiak was selected to present a scientific poster at the upcoming 10th FEMS Congress of European Microbiologists in July 2023 in Hamburg.

FEMS2023 is the biggest event in Europe dedicated to showcasing the latest developments across the broad scope of microbiology.

Jan Paczesny went to Japan to work with Professor Shigeori Takenaka at Kyushu Institute of Technology! The visit is funded by The Matsumae International Foundation, Japan.

We are hining! Post-doc within OPUS 2019/35/B/ST5/03229 (nanosynthesis, nanocharacterization, thin films, physical chemistry, organic physical chemistry) wanted!

More details here!

Coffee Seminars are back on! Coffee Seminars are semi-informal meetings (with coffee)  that aim to allow us to keep up to date with the most active research  areas while, at the same time, facilitating networking in our Institute. Organizers - Alexandra Siklitskaya (Team 20 - CoopCat) and Jan Paczesny invite you to join on Fridays, 1 pm.

Our paper was highlighted on the cover of the journal issue!

Congo red protects bacteriophages against  UV irradiation and allows for the simultaneous use of phages and UV for  membrane sterilization

Mateusz Wdowiak, Patryk A. Mierzejewski, Rafał Zbonikowski, Bartłomiej Bończaka and Jan Paczesny*

Environmental Science Water Research & Technology, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/d2ew00913g (IF=5.82)

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/ew/d2ew00913g

Yet another paper coming from the group (fifth this year already!)

Heteroaggregation of virions and microplastics reduces the number of active bacteriophages in aqueous environments

Enkhlin Ochirbat, Rafał Zbonikowski, Anna Sulicka, Bartłomiej Bończak, Magdalena Bonarowska, Marcin Łoś, Elżbieta Malinowska, Robert Hołyst, Jan Paczesny

Journal of Environmental Quality, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20459

New paper coming from our group! 

Adaptive 2D and Pseudo-2D Systems: Molecular, Polymeric, and Colloidal Building Blocks for Tailored Complexity

by Rafał Zbonikowski, Pumza Mente, Bartłomiej Bończak and Jan Paczesny

Nanomaterials 2023, 13(5), 855; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13050855

With the end of the month we say "thank you" to Pumza Mente and Bartek Bonczak, who are starting work in new places. Bartek is a post doc fellow in Professor Serena Arnaboldi group in Milan, Italy. Good luck!

Konrad Gizynski and Tomasz Andryszewski (from the Soft Matter group at IPC) are popularizing science! This time they prepared the chemical show for students.

https://szkolalbiska.edupage.org/news/?gtnid=786#news-786

Pumza Mente coauthored recently published paper. Congrats!

Catalyst Design: Counter Anion Effect on Ni Nanocatalysts Anchored on Hollow Carbon Spheres

Ryan O’Connor,Joyce B. Matsoso, Victor Mashindi, Pumza Mente, Lebohang Macheli, Beatriz D. Moreno, Bryan P. Doyle, Neil J. Coville and Dean H. Barrett

Nanomaterials 2023, 13(3), 426; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano13030426 [IF= 5.08]

Our PhD student Mateusz Wdowiak was appointed a regular member of the  Polish Society of Microbiologists. PSM is a founder-member of the  Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS), the  International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS), and the member  of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases  (ESCMID).

New paper has been accepted for publication! 

Congo red protects bacteriophages against UV irradiation and allows for the simultaneous use of phages and UV for membrane sterilization

Mateusz Wdowiak, Patryk A. Mierzejewski, Rafał Zbonikowski, Bartłomiej Bończaka and Jan Paczesny*

Environmental Science Water Research & Technology, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/d2ew00913g (IF=5.82)

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/ew/d2ew00913g

We welcome Witold Adamkiewicz, PhD, in the group. Witold will work with materials and physical chemistry of dynamic systems.

https://scholar.google.pl/citations?user=q3F2I98AAAAJ&hl=pl

A new paper has been accepted for publication! The manuscript entitled "An Overview of Diverse Strategies To Inactivate Enterobacteriaceae-Targeting Bacteriophages" authored by Sada Raza, Mateusz Wdowiak and Jan Paczesny will be published in EcoSal Plus. This is our first paper in journal published by American Society for Microbiology.

Raza, S., Wdowiak, M., & Paczesny, J.*

EcoSal Plus, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1128/ecosalplus.esp-0019-2022

Jan Paczesny was awarded  OPUS gran. The project aims to develop antiphagents that will be safe for bacteria and eukaryotic cells. The whole grant is for aorund 2.2 M PLN. 

We will have PhD and post doc position open for new group members. 

Jan Paczesny visited Prus High School in Żary, Poland. I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Bolesława Prusa is a school that Janek graduated from. The meeting was to convince students that science is interesting! :)

We are happy to announce that another paper was accepted for publication.

Gold–Oxoborate Nanocomposite Coated Orthodontic Brackets Gain Antibacterial Properties while Remaining Safe for Eukaryotic Cells

J. Lyczek,* B. Bończak, I. Krzymińska, K. Gizyński, J. Paczesny*

Journal of Biomedical Materials Research: Part B - Applied Biomaterials, accepted [IF=3.4]

Another paper coming from the group.

Relaxation, temporal diffusion, and polarity of aromatic hydrocarbons in ionic liquid

N. O. Atamas, K. S. Yablochkova, M. M. Lazarenko & G. Taranyik

Applied Nanoscience (2022) [IF=3.67]

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-022-02696-z

With the new academic year, there are new opportunities to join lectures taught by Jan Paczesny:

"Law and ethics in research" 

October 2022 - Wroclaw University of Life Sciences 

November 2022 - Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS

February 2023 - Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS

"The art of public presentation"

December 2022 - Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS

January 2023 - Wroclaw University of Life Sciences 

March 2023 - Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS

Yet another paper published - a result of collaboration with group from Poznań, Poland and Kjeller, Norway!

Fabrication of 1D particle structures outside a liquid environment using electric and capillary interactions: From fundamentals to applications

Z. Rozynek, Y. Harkavyi, K. Giżyński

Materials & Design, 2022, 223, 111233 [IF=9.417]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264127522008553

New paper - a result of collaboration with Warsaw Military University of Technology.

Optical Properties of a Tapered Optical Fiber Coated with Alkanes Doped with Fe3O4 Nanoparticles

Karol A. Stasiewicz,* Iwona Jakubowska, Joanna E. Moś, Paweł Marć, Jan Paczesny, Rafał Zbonikowski and Leszek R. Jaroszewicz

Sensors 2022, 22(20), 7801 (IF=3.847)

https://doi.org/10.3390/s22207801

We visited Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy PAS in Wroclaw. Thanks for having us and teaching us new tricks!

After the summer internship Natalia Szczepańska and Mateusz Grotek decided to stay with us and become group members. Welcome!

Pumza Mente, Rafał Zbonikowski, Bartek Bończak, Konrad Giżyński and Jan Paczesny attended 2022 EMRS spring meeting (19-22.09.2022). We gave talks, we showed posters and me saw a lot of inspiring research. 

New paper authored by a group member! Konrad Giżyński did a collaborative work with group of Tomasz Mazur from Cracow! Congrats!

Enhanced Assembly of Ag Nanoparticles for Surface-Independent Fabrication of Conductive Patterns

Michał Szuwarzyński, Łukasz Mazur, Mariusz Borkowski, Krzysztof Maćkosz, Konrad Giżyński, and Tomasz Mazur

ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2022 (IF=6.14)

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsanm.2c02559

Great success! Sada and Bartek did a great job during the final of the Falling Walls competition. Sada received second prize! Congrats!

Read more here!

New review paper coming from our group!

Enhancing the Stability of Bacteriophages Using Physical, Chemical, and Nano-Based Approaches: A Review 

Mateusz Wdowiak†, Jan Paczesny†*, and Sada Raza 

Pharmaceutics 2022, 14(9), 1936 (IF=6.5); 

https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics14091936

Jan Paczesny attended Polish Bacteriophage symposium in Gdańsk. It was a great opportunity to talk to other phage researchers in Poland! New ideas were generated!

Sada Raza and Bartek Bonczak are among 20 finalist of Falling  Walls Lab Warsaw competition. Congrats! 

https://fallingwallslab.pl/

Professor Atamas moved to Vienna. But we still collaborating on number of project. We are grateful to have you in the group this year!

We also had farewell (Natasha) / welcome (Amit, Aga, Natalia and Mateusz) barbecue at the IPC PAS! :)

We welcome three fantastic (!) interns, who will be working during summer in our group! Aga came to Warsaw from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Natalia is undergrad student at Warsaw University of Technology and Mateusz at Warsaw Military University. We are happy to have you in our labs!

We welcome new PhD student in our group! Amit Patel is working with Konrad Gizynski within Sonata grant.

Another patent application was filled.

Application of sodium salt of 5,5′-indygodisulfonic acid to inhibit bacteriophage infection in biotechnological processes

Sada Raza, Jan Paczesny Bartłomiej Bończak, Marcin Łoś

P.441746, 2022-07-15

Enkhlin Ochirbat, Sada Raza, and Mateusz Wdowiak participated in Viruses of Microbes 2022 conference in Portulag (18-22.07.2022).  Enkhlin presented our "microplastic" project, Sada showed reasults on "deactivation" and Mateusz "stabilization" of phages.

New patent application was filled. 

The use of ultraviolet-absorbing dye to protect bacteriophages from ultraviolet radiation, the method of sterilization of industrial equipment, and the use of bacteriophages containing ultraviolet-absorbing dye for sterilization of industrial equipment in biotechnology processes

Mateusz Wdowiak, Patryk Aleksander Mierzejewski, Jan Paczesny

P.441359, 02/06/2022

Jan Paczesny was invited to attend the ceremony of awarding honorary doctorate to Jean Marie Lehn at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. It was a good chance to visit Jan`s Alma Mater!

Jan Paczesny was invited as keynot speaker for conference in Rome, Italy. You are most welcome to attend! :)

https://2023.theresearchcatalyst-nano.com/#keynote

Pumza Mente coauthored two new papers! Congrats!

Photocatalytic abatement of phenol on amorphous TiO2-BiOBr-bentonite heterostructures under visible light irradiation

Menelisi C. Dlamini, Mbongiseni L. Dlamini, Pumza Mente, Boitumelo Tlhaole, Rudolph Erasmus, Manoko S. Maubane-Nkadimeng, John A.Moma

Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 2022, 111, 419-436.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2022.04.023

Platinum Nanocatalysts Supported on Defective Hollow Carbon Spheres: Oxygen Reduction Reaction Durability Studies

Victor Mashindi, Pumza Mente, Tumelo N. Phaahlamohlaka, Nobuhle Mpofu, Ofentse A. Makgae,  Beatriz D. Moreno, Dean H. Barrett, Roy P. Forbes, Pieter B. Levecque, Kenneth I. Ozoemena and Neil J. Coville

Front. Chem., 2022

https://doi.org/10.3389/fchem.2022.839867

Jan Paczesny obtained habilitation and became DSc! Congrats!

Book chapter authored by Mateusz Wdowiak, Enkhlin Ochirbat and Jan Paczesny was published online on 14th of April 2022. 

Bacteriophage-Based Biosensors: Detection of Bacteria and Beyond

Book chapter published by Springer

Nanotechnology for Infectious Diseases pp 439–473

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-9190-4_20

New paper comming from our group in collaboration with Professor Foltynowicz and Professor Łoś.

The Effect of Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticles (nZVI) on Bacteriophages

Sada Raza, Michał Folga, Marcin Łoś, Zenon Foltynowicz and Jan Paczesny

Viruses 2022, 14(5), 867;  (IF=5.05)

https://doi.org/10.3390/v14050867

DSc Nataliia Atamas obtained financial support from Polish Academy of Science and National Academy of Science of the United States.

We are still open to accomodate researchers from Ukraine that wish to continue their research in Poland.

New paper comming from our group was accepted for publication. Bartek Bonczak is first and corresponding author of paper published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Congrats!

Donor-Acceptor Stenhouse Adducts for Stimuli-Responsive Self-Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles into Semiconducting Thin Films

Bartłomiej Bończak,* Marcin Fiałkowski

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, just accepted 2022 (IF=4.126)

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c00084

DSc Nataliia Atamas from the Faculty of Physics of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv joined our team. Welcome! 

For any Ukrainian researchers looking for a place to pursue research Nataliia might be a reference contact (natamas@ichf.edu.pl) along with Jan Paczesny (jpaczesny@ichf.edu.pl). 

Our paper Richter et al., Scientific Reports volume 11, Article number: 7387 (2021) was listed on 7th place in the collection that highlights  most downloaded chemistry papers published in 2021 in Scientific Reports.

Patryk Mierzejewski decided to pursue his career in industry. Good luck!

We strongly support Ukraine in these difficult times. We try to help as much as possible. We offer a place for several Ukrainian researcher that wish to continue doing reseach. There are number of funding schemes. Please contact jan.paczesny@gmail.com for details.

Part of the group went together for small skiing trip! Best wishes from Zawoja, Poland.

Jan Paczesny gave a talk during online event organized by the Polish Biochemical Society on Thursday, 3rd of February 2022, at 1 PM. The talk will be in Polish. Please refer to the following information:

Zapraszamy do wysłuchania kolejnego wykładu w ramach cyklu "Nowe Oblicza Biochemii 2022" organizowanego przez Polskie Towarzystwo Biochemiczne. Webinar on-line odbędzie się 3 lutego 2022 r., o godz. 13:00.

Wykład (po polsku) wygłosi dr Jan Paczesny (Warszawa):

"Żywe materiały - na pograniczu chemii, biologii i fizyki"

Instytut Chemii Fizycznej PAN, Warszawa.

http://www.ptbioch.edu.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=913&catid=37&Itemid=16 

Katarzyna Rudzińska is an undergrad student at the Warsaw University of Technology, who is working on her engineering thesis in our group. She is about to defend her thesis (03.02.2022) on: 

"Influence of Chosen Natural Extracts on Deactivation of Bacteriophages"

Supervisor: Professor Joanna Cieśla

Tutor: Sara Raza, MSc.

Mateusz Wdowiak, Rafał Zbonikowski and Patryk A. Mierzejewski presented their results durign annual Microsymposium of the IPC PAS

"Gold-Polyoxoborates Nanocomposite Prohibits Adsorption of Bacteriophages on Inner

Surfaces of Polypropylene Labware and Protects Samples from Bacterial and Yeast Infections" Mateusz Wdowiak, Enkhlin Ochirbat, Jan Paczesny

"Stimuli-responsive Langmuir films composed of magnetic nanoparticles decorated with

poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAM)"

Rafał Zbonikowski, Michalina Iwan, Jan Paczesny

"Common azo dye (cd) acts as a molecular sunscreen"

Patryk A. Mierzejewski, Mateusz Wdowiak, Bartłomiej Bończak, Rafał Zbonikowski, Jan Paczesny

The Scientific Council of the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS awarded thrid prize for the discovery of the phenomenon of repulsion, as a result of the action of an alternating electric field, of two differently charged surfaces, separated by an aqueous electrolyte, was awarded to the work: "Ions in an AC electric field: strong long-range repulsion between opositely charged surfaces" Physical Review Letters 2020, 125 , 056 001 to authors: Łukasz Richter, Paweł J. Żuk, Piotr Szymczak, Jan Paczesny, Krzysztof M. Bąk, Tomasz Szymborski, Piotr Garstecki, Howard A. Stone, Robert Hołyst, Carlos Drummond.

We welcome Pumza Mente, PhD to our group. Pumza is post doc within OPUS grant. She graduated from th University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She did her PhD in the group of Professor Neil Coville. Welcome!

New press release comming from the group (read here) gained interest among numerous media, e.g., Biotechnologia.pl, and Nauka w Polsce.

Publication being a result of a cooperation with Professor Stellacci group was published in Nanoscale!

Broad-spectrum nanoparticles against bacteriophage infections

Łukasz Richter, Karolina Paszkowska, Urszula Cendrowska, Francesca Olgiati, Paulo Silva, Matteo Gasbarri, Pelin Guven, Jan Paczesny and Francesco Stellacci

Just accepted 2021

https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NR04936D

Publication coauthored by members of Living Materials and Soft Matter groups was accepted for publication in Physical Review E.  Konrad was driving force for this research.

Internal energy in compressible Poiseuille flow

Konrad Gizynski, Karol Makuch, Jan Paczesny, Yirui Zhang, Anna Maciołek, and Robert Holyst

Accepted 14 October 2021

We welcome Enkhlin Ochirbat, MSc Eng. as a new PhD student in the group! 

Enkhlin Ochirbat and Sunday Samson defended their MSc theses with the highest grades! Congrats!

Enkhlin Ochirbat

Thesis: Deposition of ordered layers of bacteriophages on oxide surfaces of optoelectronic transducers

Supervisor: Professor Elżbieta Malinowska (Warsaw Univ. of Technology)

Tutor: Jan Paczesny, PhD.

Sunday Samson

Thesis: Encapsulation of bacteriophages to increase their thermal stability

Supervisor: Professor Elżbieta Malinowska (Warsaw Univ. of Technology)

Tutor: Jan Paczesny, PhD.

Bartek Bończak, PhD, coauthored paper accepted for publication in Journal of Molecular Structure. Congrats!

Synthesis and cytotoxic activity of 1,2,3-triazoles derived from 2,3-seco-dihydrobetulin via a click chemistry approach

Kinga Kuczynska, Bartłomiej Bończak, Lucie Rárová, Marie Kvasnicová, Miroslav Strnad, Zbigniew Pakulski,  Piotr Cmoch, MarcinFiałkowski

Journal of Molecular Structure, In Press 2021, 131751

We are hiring! There is an open position for post doctoral research fellow within OPUS grant. For more details see https://ichf.edu.pl/en/job .

We are looking for a new PhD student, who will work on the joint project with Professor Wojtkowski group. We obtained funding within PRELUDIUM BIS-2 for the work on detection of bacteria.

We are also looking for PhD student within SONATA grant (leader: dr Konrad Giżyński).

For more details see: https://ichf.edu.pl/en/job

Anna Sulicka became MSc Eng. when she defended her MSc thesis on 23rd of June 2021. 

Thesis: The presence of microplastic decreases the number of active bacteriophages in the aqueous environments

Supervisor: Professor Elżbieta Malinowska (Warsaw Univ. of Technology)

Tutor: Jan Paczesny, PhD.

Grade: A

We are pleased to inform that yet another paper comming from our group was accepted for publication. This is a first paper for both Matuesz and Enkhlin! Congrats!

Gold—Polyoxoborates Nanocomposite Prohibits Adsorption of Bacteriophages on Inner Surfaces of Polypropylene Labware and Protects Samples from Bacterial and Yeast Infections

Mateusz Wdowiak †, Enkhlin Ochirbat † and Jan Paczesny *

Viruses 2021, 13(7), 1206; https://doi.org/10.3390/v13071206

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. † These authors contributed equally to this work.

Jan Paczesny was guest of Borys Kozielski in "XXIst century science" podcast. You can find it here!

Bartek Bończak defended his PhD thesis! CONGRATS!

WE ARE HIRING! Dr. Konrad Giżyński offers 5000 PLN stipend for PhD student willing to work on "ASSEMBLY OF PARTICLE CHAINS BASED ON DIELECTROPHORETIC, MAGNETIC AND CAPILLARY EFFECTS" within SONATA 2019/35/D/ST5/03613. 

More details here!

We are pleased to announce that our next paper is accepted for publication!

Langmuir and Langmuir Blodgett films of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystals coated with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS)

Jan Paczesny, Małgorzata Wolska-Pietkiewicz, Ilona Binkiewicz, Marta Janczuk-Richter, 

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2021, just accepted (IF=7.5).

Our recent articles are being noticed!

Blog post about Scientometrics paper: 

https://www.tribonet.org/how-to-get-cited/

Twitter about Scientific Reports paper:

https://twitter.com/

Resistance and adaptation of bacteria to non-antibiotic antibacterial agents: physical stressors, nanoparticles, and bacteriophages

Sada Raza, Kinga Matuła, Sylwia Karoń, Jan Paczesny

Antibiotics, 2021, just accpeted, IF=3.89

Our paper on 

Adsorption of bacteriophages on polypropylene

labware affects the reproducibility of phage research

was accepted for publication in Scientific Reports (IF=3.9).

We are happy to announce that another paper was accepted for publication

Factors affecting the citations of papers in tribology journals

T. Liskiewicz · G. Liskiewicz · J. Paczesny

Scientometrics (IF=2.8)

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-03870-w

Undergrad students working in the team, Anna Sulicka, Enkhlin Ochirbat and Sunday Samson presented their progress during seminars at Warsaw University of Technology.

Annual microsymposium at the IPC PAS took held on 19th to 20th of January, 2021. Living Materials group team members presented: 

Konrad Giżyński "Thermodynamics out-of-equilibrium"

Sada Raza  "DEACTIVATION OF BACTERIOPHAGES - a study of food additivies"

Rafal Zbonikowski "Stimuli-Responsive Nanoparticle 2D systems"

We got official documents related to our patent

Method for deposition of analyte from solution onto the substrate for surface enhanced spectroscopy in the electric field

Richter, Ł.; Paczesny, J,; Księżopolska-Gocalska, M.; Hołyst, R.

P.412548, 04.08.2020

Bartek Bończak joined the team. You are most welcome!

Jan Paczesny gave a talk within a semiar series "Next door at IPC PAS"

The use of probes and bacteriophages for the detection of bacteria

Jan Paczesny∗ and Patryk A. Mierzejewski

Methods in Microbiology, ISSN 0580-9517, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.mim.2020.11.003

© 2021 Elsevier Ltd.

Konrad Giżyński and Jan Paczesny were awarded Young Researchers of IPC PAS competition. 

Jan Paczesny gave a talk during International Centre for Translational Eye Research seminar on

"Examples of physicochemical approach to studies on bacteriophages" 

Thursday, Oct. 22, 3:00 p.m.

Natalia Czaplicka defended her BSc thesis at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University with A mark. Congrats!

Thesis titile: Functional materials from Moon soil simulant

Supervisor: Jan Paczesny, PhD

Review on application of bacteriophages in nanotechnology by Jan Paczesny and Krzysztof Bielec (from the Holyst group) was accepted for publication in Nanomaterials (IF=4.3).

MSc Mateusz Wdowiak, who graduated from Department of Biology, Warsaw University, was accepted for Warsaw4PhD doctoral school, and join our group from the 1st of October. Welcome!

Rafał Zbonikowski defended his MSc thesis at the Warsaw University of Technology with the highest grades! Congrats! Rafal is staying with us for his PhD studies.

Thesis titile: Dynamic and responsive Langmuir-Blodgett films of nanoparticles

Supervisor: Małgorzata Wolska-Piekiewicz, PhD

Tutor: Jan Paczesny, PhD

Katarzyna Pawlak defended her BSc thesis at the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University. Congrats!

Thesis titile: Functional materials from Mars soil simulant

Supervisor: Jan Paczesny, PhD

Sylwia Karoń defended her MSc thesis at the Warsaw University of Technology with the highest grades! Congrats!

Thesis titile: Bioconjugates composed of immunoglobulins and magnetic nanoparticles for repeated deactivation of bacteriophages

Supervisor: Professor Elżbieta Malinowska

Tutor: Jan Paczesny, PhD

Another paper is accepted for publication!

Recent Progress in the Detection of Bacteria Using Bacteriophages: A Review

Jan Paczesny, Łukasz Richter and Robert Hołyst

Viruses 2020, 12(8), 845

https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/12/8/845

We got a patent granted! 

Method for deposition of analyte from solution onto the substrate for surface enhanced spectroscopy in the electric field

Richter, Ł.; Paczesny, J,; Księżopolska-Gocalska, M.; Hołyst, R.

P.412548, 04.08.2020

The first round of recruitment for Warsaw4PhD doctora school is over. We are pleased to say that we hired three magnificent PhD candidates: Rafał Zbonikowski, Patryk Mierzejewski and Sada Raza! 

We got another paper accepted for publication, this time in Physical Review Letters. The piece was done in collaboration with groups of Professor Robert Holyst (IPC PAS), Professor Piotr Garstecki (IPC PAS), Professor Howard A. Stone (Princeton University) and Professor Carlos Drummond (CNRS, Unversite de Bordeaux).

Ions in an AC electric field: Strong long-range repulsion between oppositely charged surfaces

Łukasz Richter, Paweł J. Żuk, Piotr Szymczak, Jan Paczesny, Krzysztof M. Bąk, Tomasz Szymborski, Piotr Garstecki, Howard A. Stone, Robert Hołyst, and Carlos Drummond

Phys. Rev. Lett. 2020 just accepted

https://journals.aps.org/prl/accepted/4b078Y0fZf013d6ee7ff18165c124e855f985ac82

Good news!  Kinga Matula was listed as co-author of the paper on cell extract gels, which was accepted for publication.

Cell extract gels as an example of active matter

Agnieszka Wisniewska, Tomasz Kalwarczyk, Jedrzej Szymanski, Katarzyna Kryszczuk, Kinga Matula & Robert Holyst

Rheologica Acta (2020)

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00397-020-01213-9

We are happy to announce that we obtained new funding for our research. Konrad Giżyński got Sonata grant (around 900k PLN) and Janek Paczesny got Opus grant (around 1.4M PLN) from National Science Centre. Int he following months we will be hiring! The positions will be:

- Post doc in biotechnology, microbiology, virology (stabilization of virions) [Sonata Bis]

- Post doc in nanotechnology [Opus] 

- PhD student in physical chemistry, nanotechnolgy [Opus]

- PhD student in physical chemistry, physics, nanotechnolgy [Sonata]

- PhD student in chemistry, biotechnology and related [Sonata Bis]

- PhD student in chemistry, biotechnology and related [Sonata Bis]

Be aware! Some topics are already listed for upcoming recruitment for Warsaw-4-PhD doctoral school. You can read more here.

We recruited three new members of the team!

     Anna Sulicka

     Enkhlin Ochirbat

     Sunday Ocholi Samson

are MSc students at the Warsaw University of Technology. They will do experimental work on their theses in the IPC PAS within Sonata Bis grant. Welcome! 

New paper was published!

Storage of Energy in Constrained Non-Equilibrium Systems

by Yirui Zhang, Konrad Giżyński, Anna Maciołek and Robert Hołyst

Entropy 2020, 22, 557, https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/22/5/557

Rafal Zbonikowski was recruited as MSc student within Sonata Bis grant! He will work on synthesis of nanoparticles, which might be used for virius projects.

Rafal is MSc student at Warsaw University of Technology (supervisor prof. Janusz Lewiński).

Janek was a guest of Radosław Brzózka withn ALPHA project. He talked about arms race between bacteria and bacteriophages. You can hear it here!

The Spokesmen of Science (see web page) received prestigious Science Populariser 2019 award. Jan Paczesny and Łukasz Richter are members of the association! You can read more here (in Polish).

February is breathtaking! Another paper was accepted for publication.

Fast and efficient deposition of broad range of analytes on substrates for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Łukasz Richter, Paweł Albrycht, Monika Księżopolska-Gocalska, Ewa Poboży, Robert
Bachliński, Volodymyr Sashuk, Jan Paczesny, Robert Hołyst

Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2020, just accepted. Read more here.

 Janek Paczesny co-authored paper published in Angewandte! The work was done during his post-doc in South Korea. 

Shaping microcrystals of metal‐organic frameworks by reaction‐diffusion

Jun Heuk Park, Jan Paczesny, Namhun Kim, Bartosz Grzybowski

Angewandte Chemie, 2020, accepted articles

https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.201910989

 Karolina Paszkowska co-authored yet another publication, this time in cooperation with group from Szeged, Hungary:

Nanoparticle enhanced LIBS spectroscopy of liquid samples by using modified surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates

Dávid J. Palásti,* Pawel Albrycht,* Patrick Janovszky, Karolina Paszkowska, Zsolt Geretovszky, Gábor Galbács (*equal contribution)

published in Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy (IF=3.1). You can read more here. Congrats!

 Karolina Paszkowska was listed as co-author in recently published paper coming from group of Elena Martínez Fraiz from Barcelona. Karolina spent some time there doing her internship.

Microfabrication of poly(acrylamide) hydrogels with independently controlled topography and stiffness

Comelles, Jordi ; Fernández-Majada, Vanesa; Berlanga-Navarro, Nuria; Acevedo, Verónica; Paszkowska, Karolina; Martínez, Elena  

Biofabrication, 2020, just accepted (IF=7.2). 

Congrats!

 And now we are happy to announce that Kinga defended her PhD thesis with honors!

Kinga Matula passed her doctoral and philosophy exams on 21st of January! She will defend her thesis entitled "Influence of physical and chemical factors on evolution of cells" on 3rd of February (9.00) in the Main Hall of IPC PAS. You are all welcome to attend!

Congrats!

Karolina Księżarczyk coauthored paper published in Clinica Chimica Acta entitled:

"Higher cerebrospinal fluid to plasma ratio of p-cresol sulfate and indoxyl sulfate in patients with Parkinson’s disease"

B. Sankowski, K. Księżarczyk, E. Raćkowska, S. Szlufik, D. Koziorowski, J. Giebułtowicz, 10.1016/j.cca.2019.10.038

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0009898119321023

Congrats!

Karolina Księżarczyk presented her results on "Chemical modification of phage stabilization" during The 2nd Asian Symposium on Cutting-edge Biotechnology and Chemistry (2nd ASCBC), which took place in Kitakyushu, Japan, from 5th to 6th of December 2019.

Karolina is currently working in Professor Takenaka group at Department of Applied Chemistry, Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan within 3 months internship.

On 3rd of December Janek gave a talk in high school in Kutno, within series of lecture "Biologia w Kasprowiczu". He talked about the war in microworld. Science communication is important for scientists!

Sylwia Karoń was in Paris from 14th to 25th of November. She was a part of “Athens” programme. This is exchange programme for students of top technical universities. Sylwia took a course in “Drug strategies”, which was held by Chimie ParisTech – one of six ParisTech Engineering Schools.

We are pleased to inform, that method developed by us which allow for safe storage of viruses over prolonged time was awarded the bronze medal at International Warsaw Invention Show 2019 (14-16.10.2019).

The title of the invention was: The method of surface modification of polymer vessels for storing virus suspensions ensuring stability of the titers of these suspensions, the use of such vessels for storing virus suspensions and the method of storage of virus suspensions ensuring the stability of the titers of these suspensions.

Authors: Łukasz Richter, Karolina Paszkowska, Karolina Księżarczyk, Jan Paczesny, Robert Hołyst.

 Karolina Księżarczyk started her 2 months internship in Professor Takenaka group at Kyushu Institute of Technology, Fukuoka, Japan.

Aleksandra Borkenhage defended her MSc thesis with highest marks. Congrats!

Ola decided to purse her career in the group of Professor Lewiński. 

 Jan Paczesny, PhD, gave invited talk during 62nd meeting of Polish Chemical Society entitled:

Examples of physicochemical approach to studies on bacteriophages

https://zjazdptchem2019.ch.pw.edu.pl/

Lukasz Richter, Phd, Eng. left the group to become a post doc fellow in Professor Stellacci group at EPFL in Switzerland. Congrats!

We are recuiting for new PhD programme in the IPC PAS within Warsaw4PhD school!

http://www.warsaw4phd.eu/

We invite you to apply for:

3.9 Bacteriophage based sensors for detection of pathogenic bacteria (2 positions)

3.10 Unusual building blocks for equilibrium and dynamic self-assembly in 2D systems

Łukasz Richter attended 10th International Conference on Advanced Vibrational Spectroscopy, which was held in Auckland (New Zealand) from 7-12 July 2019. Łukasz had oral presentation in “Surface spectroscopy, plasmonics, SERS & SEIRA” Session.

ICAVS is one of the biggest conference focused on vibrational spectroscopy, organized every two years. This year it brought up to 300 chemists, physicists and biologists working in the field of the vibrational spectroscopy.

Patrycja Tworzydło, Eng. and Katarzyna Bury, Eng. joined our team for summer internships. They came to Warsaw from Cracow, where they study at Cracow University of Technology.

Summer is the best time for internships! Mateusz Wójcik spent the last two weeks in our research group. Mateusz is a high school student and finalist of the Polish National Chemistry Olympiad.

He cooperate with MSc Eng. Karolina Paszkowska and MSc Karolina Księżarczyk. The research concerned the study of populations of viruses and bacteria and their survival at high temperatures.

Karolina Paszkowska was awarded for her master thesis within XII competition of Polish Society of Biomedical Engineering. Karolina worked on "Production and investigation of bioactive peptide coatings". The thesis was defended at Warsaw University of Technology (Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering). Beata Butruk-Raszeja, PhD Eng., was supervisor and Aleksandra Kuźmińska, MSc Eng., was auxilary supervisor. Congrats!

Jacek Kędzierski became a MSc! He defended his thesis on "In silico analysis of thermal stability of bacteriophages" on 25ht of June 2019. Congrats!

Jacek left the group and went for internship in Switzerland!

On 17th of June, 2019, Scientific Council of IPC PAS officially created a new research group within the Institute, namely LIVING MATERIALS, with Jan Paczesny as a leader!

Łukasz Richter, PhD, Eng., is presenting his work on electric field assisted SERS durign Polish Photoscience Seminar 2019.

Łukasz Richter defended his PhD dissertation entitled:

Application of the electric and magnetic fields in sensors and biosensors.

The work was honorary mentioned! Congrats for dr inż Łukasz Richter!

The 5th International Soft Matter Conference (ISMC2019) was held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom from 3-7 June 2019. Karolina Księżarczyk and Karolina Paszkowska had poster presentations in Living Matter Session. The conference brought up to 300 experimentalists and theorists working in the soft matter field.

We are very happy to announce that manuscript entitled:

Phenotypic plasticity of Escherichia coli upon exposure to physical stress induced by ZnO nanorods

was just accepted for publication in Scientific Reports (IF=4.1).

This piece is a result of broad collaboration between:

Kinga Matuła, Łukasz Richter, Marta Janczuk-Richter, Wojciech Nogala, Mikołaj Grzeszkowiak, Barbara Peplińska, Stefan Jurga, Elżbieta Wyroba, Szymon Suski, Henryk Bilski, Adrian Silesian, Hans A. R. Bluyssen, Natalia Derebecka, Joanna Wesoły, Joanna M. Łoś, Marcin Łoś, Przemyslaw Decewicz, Lukasz Dziewit, Jan Paczesny,* Robert Hołyst*

* corresponding authors

Karolina Księżarczyk, Karolina Paszkowska, Jacek Kędzierski and Łukasz Richter proudly represented our group during 8th Intercollegiate Biotechnology Symposium "Symbioza". Karolina Księżarczyk and Jacek Kędzierski presented posters, whereas Karolina Paszkowska and Łukasz Richter had oral presentations. We are also happy to announce that Łukasz Richter was awarded with Audience Award for the best oral presentation.

Zosia Dziekan is one of the youngest student who co-authored scientific paper. She is a first year student at Warsaw University and simultaneously doing research on thinking materials in our group. 

She is co-author of paper on kinetics and equilibrium constants of oligonucleotides at low concentrations, that she was working on during her internship with Krzysztof Sozański, PhD.

Kinetics and equilibrium constants of oligonu-cleotides at low concentrations. Hybridization andmelting study

Krzysztof Bielec, Krzysztof Sozanski, Marco Seynen, Zofia Dziekan, Pieter Rein ten Wolde, Robert Holyst

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2019, Accepted Manuscript, 10.1039/C9CP01295H

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2019/CP/C9CP01295H#!divAbstract

We recruited new member of our group. Sylwia Karoń will start work on her MSc thesis since June 2019. The topic is related to stability of viruses.

On 8th of May Zosia Dziekan was guest of Halo Polonia audition on TVP Polonia, where she was talking about Young Physicist Tournament. 

https://halopolonia.tvp.pl/42249560/08052019-2220 

(from around 31:00)

Congrats!

We submitted new patent application to Polish Patent Office. The invention shows how to safely store phages.

Sposób modyfikacji powierzchni naczyń polimerowych do przechowywania zawiesin wirusów zapewniający stabilność miana tych zawiesin, zastosowanie takich naczyń do przechowywania zawiesin wirusów oraz sposób przechowywania zawiesin wirusów zapewniający stabilność miana tych zawiesin

Richter, Ł.; Księżarczyk, K.; Paszkowska, K.; Paczesny, J,; Hołyst, R.

P.429793, 07.05.2019

Katarzyna Pawlak (BSc student in our group) won second prize for her poster during 50th Polish School of Chemistry 2019. She presented her work on martian materials.

If you are looking for post doc position you might consider application for Ulam program. Let us know!

https://nawa.gov.pl/en/scientists/the-ulam-programme

New paper coauthored by Janek Paczesny is available as just accepted manuscript! 

Uniform and Directional Growth of Centimeter-Sized Single Crystals of Cyclodextrin-Based Metal Organic Frameworks

Namhun Kim,  Jun Heuk Park,  Jan Paczesny*  and  Bartosz Andrzej Grzybowski*

CrystEngComm, 2019, DOI: 10.1039/C9CE00026G

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2019/CE/C9CE00026G#!divAbstract

*corresponding authors

We are looking for undergrad students within Sonata Bis project dealing with stability of viruses. We offer 1200 PLN/month scholarship during 2019/2020 academic year.
https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/378355

From 23rd to 27th of January we hosted Dr David Martínez Martín from ETH Zurich. David gave extraordinary lecture as a part of Dream Chemistry lecture series. He presented his work on measuring a mass of single cell. It was a pleasure and we are looking to meet David in near future!

 Zosia Dziekan, first year undergrad student joined our group! She is this rare example of person, who knows what to do in life. She already has a great scientific records and she did not even had her first exams at Warsaw University! 

Zosia will work on thinking materials! 

 Natalia Czaplicka and Katarzyna Pawlak are preparing their bachelor theses under supervision of Jan Paczesny. They are working on material chemistry in space.

 Janek became a mentor in TopMinds programme.

http://topminds.pl/

 MSc Eng. Karolina Paszkowska was chosen this year for a new cadency of the PhD Students Council. Congratulations!

We obtained European Patent EP3007558 for invention entitled:

"METHOD FOR SURFACE MODIFICATION WITH NANOCOMPOSITES, NANOCOMPOSITE MATERIAL AND THE USE THEREOF"

authored by Katarzyna Wybrańska, Jan Paczesny, Marcin Fiałkowski and Robert Hołyst.

Two papers authored by members of our small subgroup were among seven papers chosen as best works published in IPC PAS in 2017.

Interference-like patterns of static magnetic fields imprinted into polymer/nanoparticle composites, Zhijie Yang, Jingjing Wei, Konrad Giżyński, Myung-Geun Song, Bartosz A. Grzybowski, Nature Communications, 8, 1564 (2017)

Dense layer of bacteriophages ordered in alternating electric field and immobilized by surface chemical modification as sensing element for bacteria detection, Richter, Ł.; Bielec, K.; Leśniewski, A.; Łoś, M.; Paczesny, J.;  Hołyst, R. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2017, 9 (23), pp 19622–19629, DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b03497

From 26th of November to 9th of December Łukasz visited group of Professor Stone at Princeton. On 6th of December Lukasz gave talk describing phage project!

On 23rd of November, Karolina Księżarczyk attended in Polish Championship of PhD Students in Volleyball. Her team got into 4th position. Congrats!!

 On 7th of November Karolina Księżarczyk and Karolina Paszkowska officialy started their PhD studies at the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS. The ceremony was held on 2 PM in the main hall.

Msc Eng. Lukasz Richter, Konrad Giżyński, PhD and Jan Paczesny, PhD were awarded within "Young Scientists of IPC PAS" competition in 2018. Laureates are chosen among PhD students and Postdocs under 35 years old based on impact factor of journals in which they published within last 3 years.

Congrats!

 Jan Paczesny, PhD was elected to become representative of assistants and adjuncts in Scientific Council of the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS.

On Friday, 21st of September 2018, we hosted Professor Shigeori Takenaka from Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan. Professor Takenaka visited labs within IPC PAS and gave a plenary talk entitled: "Detection of tetraplex DNA and detection by tetraplex DNA".

During the visit we came up with common scientific project! We are eager to see the outcomes! 

Jan Paczesny, PhD, attended one of the biggest conference on materials science. European Materials Research Society 2018 Fall meeting was held in Warsaw from 17th to 20th of September. Janek presented poster related to work on bacteriophages.

We had an unexpected guest. Dawid Frąckowiak, PhD, adjunct at Adam Mickiewicz Univ. in Poznań, visited us to discuss our common project on unusual building blocks for thin films preparation.

Konrad Giżyński, PhD, joined the group! Welcome!

MSc. Karolina Księżarczyk and MSc. Eng. Karolina Paszkowska joined the group. Karolinas are PhD student within Sonata Bis grant and they work on modification of stability of virons.

Łukasz Richter and Jan Paczesny together with Marta Janczuk-Richter (Surface Nanoengineering group) attended Viruses of Microbes conference in Wroclaw, Poland (9th to 13th of July 2018). Łukasz gave talk in front of 500 people audience! Janek and Marta presented posters.

Competitions for Post-doctoral scientist and PhD students positions have been resolved and it is our pleasure to welcome Konrad Giżyński, PhD, MSc Karolina Księżarczyk, and MSc Eng. Karolina Paszkowska. Karolinas will start work within the project in August, and Konrad in September.

http://ichf.edu.pl/2018-04-09_z3_PostDoc-SONATA_BIS_7_fin.pdf

http://ichf.edu.pl/2018-04-09_z3_PhD-SONATA_BIS_7_fin.pdf

It is our pleasure to welcome Eng. Aleksandra Borkenhagen, who will conduct reaserch for her master thesis in cooperation with Małgorzata Wolska-Pietkiewicz (Professor Lewiński group) and Jan Paczesny. Aleksandra studies at Warsaw University of Technology and her thesis will be on thin films of unusual building blocks, especially based on quantum dots.

It is our pleasure to welcome BSc Adrian Walkowiak in Warsaw. Adrian studies chemistry at Adam Mickiewicz University. He is doing his summer internship in the IPC PAS. His project deals with out of equilibrium self-assembly systems for preparation of chemical memory.

Łukasz Richter coauthored a paper comming from Joanna Niedziolka-Jonsson group! The paper was recently accepted for publication in Sensors and Actuators B.

Capturing fluorescing viruses with silver nanowires

J. Grzelak, K. Sulowska, A. Leśniewski, E. Roźniecka, M. Janczuk-Richter, Ł. Richter, M,Łoś, M. Jönsson-Niedziółka, S. Maćkowski, J. Niedziółka-Jönsson

Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Volume 273, 10 November 2018, Pages 689-695

Łukasz Richter attended the conference in Miami, USA. 28th Anniversary World Congress on Biosensors started on 12th of June and will finish on 15th of June. Łukasz presented results on phage-based biosensors.

Kinga Matuła moved to Nijmegen to work with Professor Huck at Radboud University. Good luck! 

Łukasz Richter received PRELUDIUM grant from National Science Centre! The title of the project is: "Opracowanie szybkiej i efektywnej metody osadzania analitu w polu elektrycznym jako udoskonalenie czujników i bioczujników". Contratulations!

https://www.ncn.gov.pl/konkursy/wyniki/2018-05-15-opus14-preludium14

BSc Jacek Kędzierski join the group as MSc student! He won the competition for the position within Sonata Bis grant! He will work on innate stability of virions. He will start his work in August.

Kinga Matuła passed her first doctoral exam (English) with highest notes! Congrats!

We are hiring! 2 MSc, 2 PhD and 1 Postdoc position available within Sonata Bis project!

Jan Paczesny gave plenary lecture during meeting of Scientific Association of Chemist of Adam Mickiewicz University in Jeziory on 24th of March 2018. The talk was on work done in IPC PAS within last 5 years by Jan Paczesny and coworkers.

Jan Paczesny came back from his post doc experience and again works as adjunct in the Institute of Physical Chemistry PAS. 

He obtained grant from National Science Centre within SONATA BIS program and will start forming new team for phage-related work. You are welcome to apply for MSc, PhD or post doc positions. 

Kinga Matuła and Krzysztof Bielec along whit other members of Soft Condensed Matter group participated in 10th Winter Biophysical Workshop organized by the Molecular Biophysics Division of Adam Mickiewicz University.
During the conference, Kinga gave a talk about evolution of bacteria under physical stress.

On 15th of January Lukasz Richter started his internship in Professor Francesco Stellacci group in École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

We are happy to announce that our first invited review was accepted for publication in Drug Discovery Today (IF=6.369)!

Recent advances in bacteriophage-based methods for bacteria detection

Richter, Ł.;† Janczuk-Richter, M.;† Niedziółka-Jönsson, J.; Paczesny, J.;* Hołyst, R.*

† equal contribution

* corresponding authors

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359644617302970

Kinga Matula is back from Nijmegen, where she worked in Professor Huck group as visiting researcher for a month. She performed experiments on cancer cells travelling in blood. 

Paper on thin films of zinc oxide nanocrystallites has been awarded the prize for best paper published in our Institute in 2016.

Photoactive Langmuir-Blodgett, Freely Suspended and Free Standing Films of Carboxylate Ligand-Coated ZnO Nanocrystals

Paczesny, J.;* Wolska-Pietkiewicz, M.; Binkiewicz, I.; Wadowska, M.; Wróbel, Z.; Matuła, K.; Nogala, W.; Lewiński, J.;* Hołyst, R.*

* Corresponding authors

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2016, 8 (21), 13532–13541, IF=6.72

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsami.6b03579

Even being in South Korea does not stop Janek from publishing in Polish popular science magazine Focus. You can found the article about functional nano- and micro-materials in October 2017 issue. The work is cooperative effort of Janek, Joanna Nikodemska and Jan Stradowski and within Association of Science Advocates (Rzecznicy Nauki).

Kinga Matuła gave a talk during Fall Meeting 2017 Conference organized by European Material Research Society in Warsaw. She spoke about E.coli bacteria under mechanical stress in 'Engineering surfaces to control and elucidate cellular response' session.

Kinga Matula and Lukasz Richter are among winners of prestigious "Mobility of Young Researchers of IPC PAS" competition. They will become visiting scholars for around a month in Professor Wilhelm Huck group in Holland and Professor Francesco Stellacci group in Switzerland, respectively. Congrats! 

Kinga Matuła gave a talk about mechanoevolution of bacteria under nanomechanical stress during 5th Conference on Nano- and Micromechanics organized in Wrocław (04-06.07.2017).

During last academic year Kinga Matula supervised work of Lukasz Fura, who recently defended his MSc thesis at Warsaw University of Technology (of course he got A). His work focused on the influence of electromagnetic field on viability of bacteria.

Janek co-authored review published in Chemical Society Reviews, IF=38!

From dynamic self-assembly to networked chemical systems

Grzybowski, B. A.;* Fitzner, K.;* Paczesny, J.; Granick, S.

Chem. Soc. Rev., just accepted, DOI: 10.1039/C7CS00089H

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2017/CS/C7CS00089H#!divAbstract