Maria Górna

Maria Górna obtained her PhD at the University of Cambridge (2010), and next trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Since 2016, she has led the Structural Biology Group at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Warsaw. In 2018-2021, Maria also worked for WPD Pharmaceuticals on the development of cytotoxic biologicals against brain cancer.

Maria specializes in structure-function studies of proteins and their complexes, aiming to elucidate protein function, and to enable protein repurposing and drug design. She is particularly interested in proteins working on RNA that are involved in the innate immune responses or in the RNA metabolism of pathogens. Another topic of interest is targeted protein degradation in various systems, including bacterial cells. Maria’s applied research is directed towards the development of new drugs and improved diagnostics for infectious diseases. Current projects in the group aim at the development of drugs against infectious diseases - bacterial, parasitic and fungal.

Maria’s research has been supported by EMBO, NCN, NBCR, FNP, as well as fellowships from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the MSCA Individual Fellowship, the Fulbright STEM Impact Award and the L`Oreal UNESCO for Women and Science. Maria served on the Board of Marie Curie Alumni Association (2018-2020) and is a member of the Young Academy of Europe.