Team
Alicja Fells
lab manager
Ala is the team’s Lab Manager and a PhD candidate completing her thesis on the taxonomy, ecology and biology of loricate euglenids. She has graduated her Master’s in Biology (University of Warsaw) as well as a post-graduate course “Entrepreneurial & Intrapreneurial Project Management” led by Sorbonne Université as part of the 4EU+ Programme and utilizes this knowledge to ensure smooth organization of the labs and the project’s course. As a scientist, she is mostly interested in protists, in particular in autotrophic euglenids. Privately, she enjoys learning foreign languages and being at the gym.
Michał Karlicki
postdoctoral researcher
Michał is an early career researcher who recently defended PhD thesis at University of Warsaw. He believes in a collaborative and inclusive approach to science. His research so far has focused on understanding the diversity and ecology of phototrophic protists in freshwater systems by applying a plethora of meta-omics techniques and developing bioinformatic approaches He is looking forward to delving more into evolutionary genomics. In his free time, Michał likes to read books and play computer games, and when the weather is good he enjoys hiking and sailing.
Alessandro Culicchi
postdoctoral researcher
Alessandro is an Italian biologist, mostly interested in ecology and evolution. His earlier research focused on freshwater fish communities, exploring the interactions and ecological equilibria that allow species to coexist and maintain species cohesion. Special attention was devoted to hybridisation, analysing the case study of the common bream and the white bream. He is now working at the University of Warsaw, delving into ecological association networks in freshwater microbial communities, aiming to unravel the intricate web of interactions between the bacterial and the eukaryotic components.
Iván García-Cunchillos
postdoctroal researcher
Iván is a Spanish postdoctoral researcher developing a project with an EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship. His scientific interests encompass chiefly, diversity, evolution, and protistology, and, more particularly, how unicellular eukaryotes can provide us with models to explore the origin and evolution of biological processes. He focuses on understanding the early and intermediate stages of plastid integration using the emerging model Rapaza viridis, a euglenid exhibiting kleptoplasty. For this purpose, he uses transcriptomics and gene silencing tools, like CRISPR/Cas9 and RNA interference. Beyond that, he is an avid swimmer and enjoys all kinds of music and dad jokes.
Daria Tashyreva
posdoctoral researcher
Daria is a microbiologist focusing on diversity, ecology and genomics of euglenozoan protists. Her current research interest is investigation of the diversity of prokaryotic endosymbionts in cultured and environmental diplonemids, euglenids and kinetoplastids, and in dissection the molecular mechanisms of their interaction with euglenozoan hosts employing various microscopy and omics techniques. She is leading a Polonez BIS project funded through the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND grant.
Małgorzata Chwalińska
PhD student
Gosia joined the team during her Bachelor’s degree and began her PhD studies in 2022. Her research focuses on using single-cell techniques to explore the nature of symbioses between ciliates and green algae, but she is also interested in investigating the overall diversity of protists in freshwater ecosystems. As a devoted advocate of Oxford Nanopore sequencing technology, she specializes in library preparation, sequencing, and data analysis. Outside the lab, Gosia enjoys immersing herself in nature, birdwatching, and capturing the beauty of the natural world through macro photography.
Zuzana Dzurekova
PhD student
In 2024, Zuzka graduated from Comenius University in Bratislava with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology and joined our team the same year. Her research interests lie in the evolutionary biology of protists in freshwater lakes, particularly their species diversity within ecosystems. She takes great pleasure in observing the microworld of eukaryotes under the microscope, exploring their interactions with prokaryotic life. Outside the lab, Zuzka enjoys spending time in nature and discovering new places.
Metody Hollender
PhD student
Metody is a recent University of Warsaw graduate, interested in the unexplored diversity of endosymbiotic prokaryotes in protists, their evolution and mechanism of interaction with the hosts. I have worked on establishing approaches to symbiont discovery in our lab and characterised endosymbionts of various environmental protists and members of cultured yet understudied protist groups. He collaborated with Prof. Hess on Vampyrellid amoebae and is currently involved in a project screening for endosymbionts in Euglenid diversity. He has experience with single-cell picking, NGS sequencing data analysis, bacterial genomics and phylogenetic analyses.
Marta Sałek
PhD student
Marta holds a Master’s degree in Biology and an Engineer’s degree in Hydrogeology from the University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on the interactions between protists and bacteria along the eutrophication gradient, with a keen interest in protist ecology and diversity from single-cell to large-scale levels. Passionate about microscopy, Marta also explores the prokaryotic microbiome of protists. Outside the lab, she enjoys long hikes in nature and classical music, which provide balance and inspiration for her scientific endeavours.
Valentina Smacchia
PhD student
Valentina graduated from the University of Bologna and joined the team in 2021 as a PhD student to work on bacterial diversity in freshwaters and biofilms as a PhD student. Her research explores the dynamics of prokaryotic communities in lakes over time, uncovering how external environmental factors—particularly lake eutrophication—shape and influence bacterial diversity. She is also interested in the relationship between pathogenic bacterial species and their protist symbiont host. She is a passionate reader and enjoys spending time in the kitchen, experimenting with delicious recipes.
Students
Weronika Popławska
Laura Kur
Agata Michalska
Karolina Krupa
Interns
Former members
Dr Kacper Maciszewski (PhD student 2017-2023) – currently a post-doc in a Hehenberger Lab
Dr Anhelina Kyrychenko
Julia Gołębiowska
Małgorzata Malczewska