Affiliation: Departamento de Química Física y Analítica, Universitat Jaume I

Fields or areas of research Physical Chemistry , Computational Chemistry , Computational Biochemistry

Katarzyna Świderek, born in 1983 in Poland, studied Chemistry and obtained her Master (2007) and PhD (2011) degrees in Physical Chemistry at the Lodz University of Technology (Poland), under the supervision of Prof. P. Paneth. During 2007 she was working in a crystallographic laboratory in the Institute of Technical Biochemistry at same University and in 2008 she stayed 3 months in the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ in Leipzig (Germany) funded by an AXIOM - Marie Curie Host Fellowship. In 2011, she moved to the University of Valencia (Spain) for her first postdoctoral stay under the supervision of Professor I. Tuñón, until the end of 2014. In 2015 she obtained a 3-year contract in an NIH project (National Institute of Health, USA) as a postdoctoral researcher at University Jaume I (UJI, Spain) under supervision of Professors V. Moliner (UJI) and A. Kohen (University of Iowa, USA). At the same time, she became principal investigator (PI) of a "Iuventus Plus" project funded by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education dedicated for the talented young researchers (under 35). In 2017 she spent 6 months in the laboratory of Professor I. H. Williams at University of Bath (UK). In 2018 she obtained a two years Juan de la Cierva-Incorporation contract from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness that allowed her to be involved in the projects conducted in the BioComp group at Universitat Jaume I. Recently, (1/10/2020), she obtained a 3-years contract as a PI in a JIN project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities at the same University, and her research is funded by SEJI 2020 (Scientific Excellence Junior Researchers Grants) program of Valencian Regional Government and a proyect founded by UJI, in which she is also PI.
The professional activity and the main research line of Dr. Świderek are focused on theoretical studies of reactivity present in cellular processes, from inhibition to design. In general, three closely connected areas to the mainline of interest can be distinguished in her recent career path i.e. the origin of biocatalysis, inhibition and drug design, and design of biocatalysts. In particular, most of Dr Świderek's studies are based on molecular dynamic (MD) simulations with hybrid QM/MM potentials. Obtained results of computational studies of biological catalysts can provide information to be widely exploited on pharmacological, medical and industrial areas. The investigation projects conducted by Dr Świderek involve national and international collaborators including researchers from Spain, Poland, USA, UK, Canada, and Italy.