Prof. dr. hab. Grzegorz Węgrzyn
has graduated from
University of Gdansk, Poland. In 1987 he
obtained MSc degree in biology, and in 1991
PhD degree in molecular genetics. His PhD
thesis was focused on the regulation of DNA
replication in starved cells. Then (in 1991), he
was a research fellow at the Department of
Biochemistry, University of Nottingham
Medical School (UK), where he worked on the
mechanisms of gene expression regulation in
bacteria. In 1992 he was a post-doctoral
researcher at Center for Molecular Genetics,
University of California at San Diego (USA),
where he investigated regulation of viral DNA
replication. Since 1996 he is a Professor and
Head of Department of Molecular Biology at
the University of Gdansk (Poland). Prof.
Grzegorz Węgrzyn is a co-author of over 500
scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and
over 600 communications on scientific
conferences. He supervised 57 PhD theses, and
led over 30 research projects within both
national and international grants. He is a
member of American Society for Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology, American Society for
Microbiology, Society for Experimental Biology
and Medicine, and International Society for
Plasmid Biology. He is an editor of several
scientific journals, including FEMS
Microbiology Reviews, Microbial Cell Factories
(Editor-in-Chief), Metabolic Brain Disease
(Deputy-Chief-Editor), Plasmid, Scientific
Reports (Senior Editor), and Acta Biochimica
Polonica (Editor-in-Chief)..
Scientific Focus
His scientific interests are focused on the regulation of gene expression and DNA replication, control
of development of bacteriophages, the use of bacteriophages in biotechnological applications, and
mechanisms and new treatment methods of human genetic and neurodegenerative diseases.
Especially, the research team led by Prof. Grzegorz Węgrzyn in involved in studies on molecular
mechanisms of various inherited diseases, including mucopolysaccharidoses, Huntington disease and
different types of neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA). He investigates processes
of degradation of macromolecules in cell, including proteasomal degradation and autophagy. He
proposed to use autophagy stimulation in treatment of various genetic and neurodegeneration
diseases which are caused by accumulation of macromolecular aggregates in cells.