Dr. Karolina Szczepanowska is the head of the Laboratory of Metabolic Quality Control at the International Institute of Molecular Mechanisms and Machines Polish Academy of Sciences (IMol PAS). She completed her Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Françoise Foury at the University of Louvain, Belgium. Following her Ph.D., Szczepanowska moved to Germany, where she did her postdoctoral training in a group of Prof. Aleksandra Trifunovic at the University of Cologne and Cluster of Excellence Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Disease.

THE SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH

The group of Dr. Szczepanowska is fascinated by the mechanisms underlying the regulation of cellular metabolism. Their research focuses on the quality control of mitochondrial respiratory complexes, a set of elaborative molecular machines critical for energy production and metabolic fluxes. The major aim is to understand how the respiratory complexes are surveilled, repaired and turned over, particularly upon exposure to stress. Their findings will help design new therapeutic strategies raised against diseases associated with the energetic crisis in our cells.