Staff:
- Head of the Department:
- Professor Agnieszka Mrozik, PhD, DSc
- Academic Teachers:
- Professor Sylwia Łabużek (Emeritus Professor);
- Urszula Guzik, PhD, DSc
- Katarzyna Hupert-Kocurek PhD, DSc
- Danuta Wojcieszyńska, PhD, DSc
- Andrzej Woźnica, PhD, DSc
- Izabela Greń, PhD
- Ariel Marchlewicz, PhD
- Agnieszka Nowak, PhD
- Bożena Nowak, PhD
- Daniel Wasilkowski, PhD
- Technical Staff:
- Barbara Wendreńska
- Mariola Machera
- Iwona Knopik
- Grażyna Jochymczyk
Main field of research:
- Microbial transformation and degradation of recalcitrant and/or hazardous xenobiotics e.g. aromatic compounds, anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), plastics:
- isolation of bacterial and fungal strains and design of mixed population of microorganisms able to decompose these compounds;
- determination of genetic and biochemical mechanisms of degradation;
- identification of key enzymes involved in the biodegradation pathways;
- optimization of process parameters for improvement of degradation efficiency:
- degradation under co-metabolic conditions;
- removal of xenobiotics by free and immobilized bacterial strains;
- the influence of abiotic and biotic factors;
- Application of mutagenesis as a tool for an improvement of key enzymes engaged in aromatic ring fission for industrial and environmental purposes;
- Bioremediation and phytoremediation of polluted environments:
- interactions between bacteria-bacteria, bacteria-environment, bacteria-plant;
- bacterial compounds promoting plant growth;
- identification of genes determining ability of microorganisms to colonize plants;
- changes in structural and functional (bio)diversity of microbial communities as a result of contamination and remediation;
- construction of bacterial consortia for bioaugmentation of polluted environments;
- application of municipal and industrial organic waste products for assisted bioremediation;
- formulation of immobilized microorganisms able to degrade xenobiotics in wastewater treatment plants;
- Study on susceptibility of various plastic compositions to degradation in different environments;
- Bacterial consortia as bioindicator of water quality:
- control of bacterial metabolic processes;
- construction of biosensing systems;
- Water environment management.
Unique resources of the Department:
- Own collection of fungal and bacterial strains, with high capability of degrading different xenobiotics, isolated from polluted environments.
External services:
- Analysis of selected aromatic compounds in environmental samples;
- Detection of selected anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in environmental samples;
- Evaluation of environments based on microbial and biochemical assays;
- Improving of enzymes properties through mutagenesis;
- Testing of susceptibility or resistance of plastics to various microorganisms;
- Determination of release ratio of antibacterial/antifungal substances from polymers.
For students:
- Erasmus +:
- Environmental biotechnology
- Structural Biochemistry
- PhD studies on Advanced methods in biotechnology and biodiversity:
- Microorganisms in the environment and their use in biotechnology.