Dr. Aleksandra Skirycz

Group: Small-Molecule Signalling
New position: Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute and the Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

The aims of Dr. Aleksandra Skirycz’s group was the identification and functional characterization of novel signalling and regulatory small molecules by studying protein-metabolite interactions. For the group the most interesting interactions wre between ligand and receptor, the triggers of signalling events. While the number of small molecules with proven or proposed regulatory roles is rapidly growing, the lion’s share of their protein receptors remains unknown. Conversely, there are numerous siganlling proteins with predicted ligand-binding domains, the identiy of the small-molecule counterparts of which remains eluxive. The identification of such regulatory PMIs stood at the core of this project. In this research they used Arabidopsis (cell cultures and plants), tobacco and yeast.