Contact

Monika Gaik

I studied biotechnology at the Jagiellonian University during which I did an internship in Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge (UK). After graduation, I worked on Nuclear Pore Complex (NPC) at Prof. Ed Hurt Laboratory in Biochemistry Center (Heidelberg, Germany) and obtained my PhD in Life Sciences in 2014. Since then I am doing a postdoc at Max Planck Research Group in Krakow (Poland) and I was awarded a Polonez grant (Marie Curie Fellowship) in 2016. My work focuses on macromolecular assemblies and their interaction with RNA.

Grants

Marie Curie Fellowship (Project Leader) – Polonez 1 by National Science Center in Poland (2016-2018)

Awards and Fellowships

  • 2018 EMBO Travel Grant for attending the EMBO Practical Course: “Cryo-Electron Microscopy and 3D Image Processing”.
  • 2018 Best workshop Award at Children’s University Foundation, entitled: “How to invent a new drug?”, Krakow, Poland
  • 2013 German Ministry of Education and Research Fellowship, “Experimental biomedical research cluster” category in Baden- Wurttemberg region, Germany
  • 2010 Award for Progress of PhD Thesis
    Hartmut Hoffmann-Berling International Graduate School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (HBIGS), Heidelberg, Germany
  • 2008 Internship at University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB), under supervision of Professor Alan Warren

Scientific activities

  • 2018 Invited speaker at the University of Regensburg. Lecture title: “Uncovering molecular mechanisms of translational control with structural biology”, Regensburg, Germany
  • 2018 EMBO Practical Course: “Cryo-Electron Microscopy and 3D Image Processing”, Heidelberg, Germany
  • 2018 Participating and co-organizing the Małopolska Researchers’ Night, Kraków, Poland
  • 2017 Conference on methods and applications in the frontier between MX and CryoEM, Barcelona, Spain
  • 2017 International Crystallography School (AICS2017). “Bridging the gap between cryo-EM and crystallography”, Pavia, Italy
  • 2017 The 22nd Annual Meeting of the RNA Society, Prague, Czech Republic. Poster presentation: “RNA-binding proteins influence stem cells’ fate decisions”
  • 2017 Polish-German Science Meeting, Munich, Germany
  • Representing Max Planck Research Group to discuss current program and new strategies for implementing excellence in Germany and Poland
  • 2017-2018 – Supervising the Master student from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, project title: “The impact of disease-related mutations on the Elp2 protein stability”.
  • 2017 EMBO Polish Workshop on Computational and Structural Biology, Serock, Poland. Selected speaker: “Uncovering molecular mechanisms of translational control with structural biology”
  • 2016 Marie Curie Fellow
    Member of Marie Curie Alumni Association and active participant in its Polish Chapter. The main goal is to attract more members and initiate fruitful exchange of idea between scientists from diverse research fields.
  • 2016 – present – supervising a PhD student within Polonez 1 Marie Curie Fellowship, project title: “Structural insights into translational control of nanos mRNA by the Sex lethal repressive complex”
  • 2016 – Supervising the Master student from Vienna University, Austria, project title: “Cloning and expression of CCR4-NOT component Twin protein from Drosophila”.
  • 2016 Interview for Lab Times Magazine
    Promoting developing life sciences in Poland in the article: ‘Let’s not Waste this Chance!‘ Gaik M, Glatt S, Grudnik P, Heddle J, Tarnwaska K, Yamada K.
  • 2012 International Spring Meeting, Bad Hindelang, Germany. Selected speaker, presentation title: “A translation-controllable pulse-chase method to study ribosome biogenesis and nuclear pore complex assembly in vivo“,
  • 2012 Annual Meeting of Graduate School – HBIGS, Heidelberg, Germany
    Poster presentation at the Hartmut Hoffmann-Berling International Graduate School of Molecular and Cellular Biology (HBIGS). Title: “Insight into in vivo assembly of Nuclear Pore Complex (NPC) by means of translation- controllable pulse-chase method“
  • 2012 and 2013 – Teaching practical courses for students of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Heidelberg University entitled: “Biochemical research on proteins, lipids and nucleic acids – in vivo purification and in vitro reconstitution of protein complexes”.
  • 2011 Symposium on Dynamics of Macromolecular Complexes in Biosynthetic Transport, Heidelberg, Germany. Poster presentation at SFB638 grant proposal, entitled “Pulse-chase analysis of TREX-2 and SAGA factors to determine their interconnection during transcription- coupled mRNA export”
  • 2011 – Supervising the Master student from Molecular and Cellular Biology program at Heidelberg University, project title: “Investigating the function of SAGA and TREX-2 in transcription-coupled mRNA export, with a particular focus on the Sus1 protein”.

Publications

  • Kojic M, Gaik M, Kiska B, Salerno-Kochan A, Hunt S, Tedoldi A, Mureev S, Jones A, Whittle B, Genovesi LA, Adolphe C, Brown D, Stow J, Alexandrov K, Sah P, Glatt S, Wainwright B J. Elongator mutation in mice induces neurodegeneration and ataxia-like behaviour. (Nat Commun.), 2018 Aug 10;9(1): 3195; IF: 12.353
  • Moschall R, Gaik M, Medenbach J, Promiscuity in post-transcriptional control of gene expression: Drosophila Sex Lethal and its regulatory partnership. FEBS Letters (FEBS Lett), 2017 Jun; 591(11): p.1471-1488; IF: 2.999
  • Gaik M, Flemming D, von Appen A, Kastritis P, Mucke N, Fischer J, Stelter P, Ori A, Bui K H, Bassler J, Barbar E, Beck M, Hurt E. Structural basis for assembly and function of the Nup82 complex in the nuclear pore scaffold. The Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), 2015 Feb 2; 208 (3): p.283- 297; IF: 8.717
  • Horwacik, I*, Gaik, M*, Durbas, M, Boratyn, E, Zając, G, Szychowska, K, Szczodrak, M, Kołoczek, H, Rokita, H. Inhibition of autophagy by 3-methyladenine potentiates sulforaphane-induced cell death of human neuroblastomaBE(2)-C cell line.Molecular Medicine Reports (Mol. Med. Rep.), 2015 Jul; 12(1): p.535-542; IF: 1.559
  • Stelter P, Kunze R, Radwan M, Thomson E, Thierbach K, Thoms M, Hurt E. Monitoring Spatiotemporal Biogenesis of Macromolecular Assemblies by Pulse-Chase Epitope Labeling. Molecular Cell (Mol Cell), 2012 47,(5), p. 788-796. (under maiden name Monika Radwan); IF: 15.28