RIACS

Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science
An institute of the Universities Space Research Association

Dr. Tomasz Zajkowski

[email protected] 

Dr. Zajkowski is a graduate of the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw. He completed his doctorate at the Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, during which he studied the influence of the prion protein on the microtubular cytoskeleton. For four years he was an employee of CeNT UW and a beneficiary of the MNiSW Mobility Plus program, under which he was a postdoctoral fellow at USRA. By joining groups from NASA and Stanford, he led to the discovery of prion proteins in archaea, suggesting their ancient function as an epigenetic mechanism of inheritance. Tomasz is interested in how simple chemical components organize into higher-order structures, giving rise to biological processes. Using the genetic information of modern organisms, he aims to recreate the processes that took place in the early stages of evolution. In his research, he focuses primarily on the aggregation of peptides and proteins in the form of amyloid fibers. Tomasz also works on the applications of synthetic biology in space exploration. He has been awarded several times in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. He belongs to the NASA Center for the Origin of Life and is one of the founders and president of the Polish Astrobiological Society.