The Wüthrich Laboratory

Pawel Stanczak, PhD.

Research Associate

stanczak@scripps.edu
phone: +1 858 784 2725
fax: +1 858 784 8014

Research Interests

I obtained my Ph.D. in Bioinorganic Chemistry at the University of Wroclaw in Poland. My scientific interests are in the impact of metal ions on the stability and structure of proteins involved in neurodegenerations. Because of my scientific background, (biochemistry as well as biophysics) I started structural biology investigation of prion protein descending from vertebrates.

My current work at TSRI in Professor Wüthrich’s group involves the reconstitution of integral membrane proteins (IMPs) in detergent micelles (mimicking the smallest membrane-like formations) and then their structure determination by NMR.

Curriculum Vitae

1998 – 2001 Undergraduate study, Bachelor’s degree of biotechnology, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Poland. Interaction of brain spectrin with cell membrane phospholipids, Research Supervisior: Dr W. Diakowski

2001-2003 Master of Science – Molecular biology specialization, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw and Polish Academy of Science, Poland, The impact of new technology antiretrovirus drugs on the activity and reproduction of viruses descending from various taxonomy groups Research Supervisor: Prof. E. Piasecki

2004-2007 Graduation, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, Poland. Ph.D. Thesis, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, Poland, The specificity of interaction of copper ions with fragments of chicken and fish prion proteins – structural and thermodynamic aspects ,Research Supervisor: Prof. H. Kozlowski.

Teaching Activities

 2003-2005 Practical Training in Basis of Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, Poland (270 hours).

Courses in Bioinorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, Poland (120 hours).

Courses in Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University
of Wroclaw, Poland (140 hours).

2005-2007 Courses in Medical Biochemistry - lectures, Faculty of Chemistry, University
of Wroclaw, Poland (120 hours).

 Scientific Supervision  

02-08/2005 J. PAP, Ph.D. student of University of Veszprem, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Wroclaw, Poland, Kinetic aspects in prion protein chemistry.

Publications

1.Stańczak P., Luczkowski M., Juszczyk P., Grzonka Z., and Kozlowski H. Interactions of Cu 2+ ions with chicken prion tandem repeats, Dalton Trans., 2102-2107 (2004).

2. Stańczak, P., Valensin, D., Juszczyk, P., Grzonka, Z., Valensin, G., Bernardi, F., Molteni, E., Gaggelli, E., and Kozlowski, H. Fine tuning the structure of the Cu(II) complex with the prion protein chicken repeat by proline isomerization, Chem. Comm.26, 3298-3300 (2005).

3. Stańczak, P., Valensin, D., Juszczyk, P., Grzonka, Z., Molteni, E., Valensin, G., Gaggelli, E. and Kozlowski, H. Structure and Stability of the Cu(II) Complexes with Tandem Repeats of the Chicken Prion, Biochemistry, 44, 12940-12954 (2005).

4. Stańczak P.,Valensin D.,Porciatti E.,Jankowska E.,Grzonka Z.,Molteni E.,Gaggelli E.,Valensin G. and Kozlowski H. Tandem Repeat-Like Domain of “Similar to Prion Protein” (StPrP) of Japanese Pufferfish Binds Cu(II) as Effectively as the Mammalian Protein Biochemistry, 45, 12227-12239 (2006).

5. Janicka A.,Stańczak P. and Kozlowski H.; Impact of copper ions on chemistry and biology of prion protein, Pol.J.Chem., 81, 1-13 (2007).

6. Stańczak P. and Kozlowski H., Can chicken and human PrPs possess SOD-like activity after β-cleavage? Biochem Biophys Res Commun., 352, 198-202 (2007).

7. Kozlowski H., Janicka A., Stańczak P., Valensin D., Valensin G., Kulon K., Specificity in the interactions with prion protein fragments from mammals to fishes. Coord. Chem. Rev. submitted in press ( doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2007.08.006) .

8. Stańczak P., Juszczyk P., Grzonka Z., Kozlowski H., The whole hexapeptide repeats domain from avian PrP displays untypical hallmarks in aspect of the Cu 2+ complexes formation. FEBS Letters, 23, 4544-4548 (2007).

9. Stańczak P., Valensin D., Jankowska E., Grzonka Z., Valensin G. and Kozlowski H., in preparation