Aleksandra Kwaśnik, PhD

I always wanted to be an astronaut or at least a hyper-sonic jet pilot, but some random events made me a molecular biologist focused on plant RNA metabolism. Regardless, my way is the one that leads to the unknown.

PROJECTS

After several years of struggle with my PhD project, I can proudly announce that my contribution to the field of RNA metabolism is the first characterization of a DXO1 protein, which is an explicitly annoying research object that failed to follow the established plan in almost every way. We provided several answers, but generated even more questions that are now addressed in the following projects:

PUBLICATIONS

Kwasnik A, Wang VY, Krzyszton M, Gozdek A, Zakrzewska-Placzek M, Stepniak K, Poznanski J, Tong L, Kufel J (2019) Arabidopsis DXO1 links RNA turnover and chloroplast function independently of its enzymatic activityNucleic Acids Res 47, 4751-4764.

Doamekpor S, Gozdek A, Kwasnik A, Kufel J, Tong L (2019) A novel 5′-hydroxyl dinucleotide hydrolase activity for the DXO/Rai1 family of enzymesNucleic Acids Res 48, 349-358.

Krzyszton M, Zakrzewska-Placzek M, Kwasnik A, Dojer N, Karlowski W, Kufel J (2018) Defective XRN3-mediated transcription termination in Arabidopsis affects the expression of protein-coding genesPlant J 93, 1017-1031.

EDUCATION

2019 PhD cum laude

Plant RNA biology
Department of Biology, University of Warsaw

2011 MSc cum laude

Biotechnology, plant biochemistry
Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, 
University of Gdańsk & Medical University of Gdańsk

2009 BSc cum laude

Biotechnology, molecular virology
Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology, 
University of Gdańsk & Medical University of Gdańsk

OTHER THINGS I DO

This website
Ride on things (bike, snowboard, motorcycle, skates)
Travel & hike in desolate mountains
Read non-fiction books (and selected fiction, but only when I run out of non-fiction)