Partnerships

Adam, born in Gdynia, completed an international bachelor’s program in biotechnology in Perugia, Italy, and a master’s degree in molecular bioengineering at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany. In 2016, he defended his doctorate under the supervision of prof. Ben Lehner at the Center for Genomic Regulation, where he studied the mechanisms of epigenetic inheritance in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. He then moved to Dresden in 2017, to study biological phase separation in Hymanlab (MPI-CBG). He is a co-author of eight publications in international scientific journals, including two articles in Science. In his research, he uses biochemical and biophysical methods to understand various aspects of gene regulation, such as transcriptional initiation and control of protein expression variability. His newly established Laboratory of Spatial Epigenetics at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology combines biochemical methods and functional studies in C. elegans to understand the mechanisms of gene regulation during animal development.

Current research activities

1. Biochemical reconstitution of transcriptional condensates

2. Microscopic characterization and functional studies of nuclear condensates during cell-fate determination and stress response

3. Identification of novel regulators of cell fate determination and stress response in C. elegans embryos using genetic screens

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Emma received her B.Sc. in Engineering with a focus in Biomedical Engineering from Harvard University (2005). It was during this time that she was introduced to research in the laboratory of Prof. David Weitz. She then proceeded to obtain a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University (2007) working on the directed assembly of reconstituted silk, which in turn fuelled her desire to learn about the physics of directed- and self-assembly. She completed her Ph.D. in (Soft Matter) Physics at New York University in 2014 under the supervision of Prof. David Pine on the shear-induced organization of colloids, and proceeded for a postdoc to the University of California, Santa Barbara where she worked on mussel adhesion and mussel-inspired dually-bonded polymer networks. She moved to Europe in 2019, as a shared postdoc between HymanLab (MPI-CBG) and the theoretical group of Prof. Frank Jülicher (MPI-PKS) studying peptide phase separation. In 2020, she joined to the University of Crete as an Assistant Professor.

Current research activities

1. Though Polymeric materials: Design, synthesis and characterization of tough dry polymer networks

2. Protein phase separation and conformation: How do Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs) shape themselves upon phase separation, and partner binding?

3. Natural materials: The mussel plaque is a mechanically sturdy material under tension and wet-dry cycling. What is the role of its porosity?

   Click here to check Emma’s lab!