Dr Anna Więckowska, Prof. UJ from the Jagiellonian University Medical College and Prof. Izidor Sosič from the University of Ljubljana have won the OPUS 24+LAP/Weave call. In their project, they plan to obtain the first PROTAC-type compounds that degrade TAK1 and IKKβ kinases with anti-inflammatory properties. To carry out the research, the Polish team will receive funding of over 2 million zlotys from the National Science Centre (NCN).
The National Science Centre presented the latest winners of the OPUS 24+LAP/Weave call. Polish scientists will implement 21 bilateral and tripartite international research projects in cooperation with partners from Germany, Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic. They received over PLN 33.7 million for their research.
OPUS has the broadest formula of all NCN competitions and is intended for scientists at various stages of their career. In its 24th edition, scientists working in Polish units could apply for funding not only for national research projects, but also for international projects based on the Lead Agency Procedure (LAP). Thanks to LAP, it was possible to plan the project in cooperation with teams from Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg or Belgium – Flanders.
In the case of 21 selected OPUS LAP projects, the National Science Centre acted as the lead agency, meaning it carried out the full evaluation procedure, and the partner agencies accepted its results. The tasks carried out by Polish teams will be financed from NCN funds, and the costs of work of foreign teams will be covered by relevant agencies from Germany, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Austria.
The aim of the project by Dr hab. Anna Więckowska, prof. UJ graduate in pharmacy from the JU MC Faculty of Pharmacy. After completing her PhD thesis, she took research internships at Uppsala University (Sweden) and the University of Sherbrooke (Canada). From 2021, she is the head of the JU MC Department of Physicochemical Analysis of Medicine. Her scientific interests focus on the search for new, effective therapy for inflammatory diseases, primarily Alzheimer's disease. She leads a team that conducts extensive, interdisciplinary research including in silico design, chemical synthesis, and in vitro and in vivo biological tests aimed at identifying new compounds interfering in processes that are key to the development of these diseases.
