Ewa Kozłowska, PhD student at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Sciences at the University of Life Sciences in Wrocław, studies the use of filamentous fungi as biocatalysts. She received almost PLN 70,000 for her research project from the National Center for Science Prelude 14 program.

Entomopathogenic filamentous fungi are those that infect insects. In the project they will serve as biocatalysts for the transformation of steroid compounds. Steroids are widely used in medicine – they are the second most commonly used group of drugs after antibiotics.
– Biocatalysts work just like our liver that produces enzymes that transform outer compounds into the body into less harmful molecules – I use as such “liver” the filamentous fungi that are the enzymes’ provider. Thanks to these fungi, new compounds can be obtained with valuable biological activities, impossible to achieve by means of traditional chemical synthesis – says a PhD student.