Łukasz Opaliński is associate professor and a project leader at The Protein Engineering Department, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw (Poland). He graduated in Biotechnology at the University of Wroclaw in 2008. In 2012 he obtained PhD at the University of Groningen (Netherlands), where he studied membrane events in peroxisome biogenesis. During his postdoctoral training (2013–2015) at the University of Freiburg (Germany) he studied molecular mechanisms of protein transport to mitochondria. Since 2015 he works as a project leader at the Protein Engineering Department, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw (Poland), focusing on cell biology of FGFRs, galectins and development of novel FGFR targeting proteins for selective anti-cancer therapies. He discovered the molecular mechanism of action of Pex11 proteins as an essential membrane bending agents in peroxisome division. He identified the role of cytosolic chaperones in the delivery of newly synthesized proteins into mitochondria. He uncovered the role of spatial distribution of FGFR1 for receptor endocytosis and function. He discovered the first direct link between galectins and FGFRs in the regulation of FGFRs signaling and trafficking, and uncovered the multidimensional impact of galectins on FGF/FGFR signaling. He discovered the stimulation of specific FGFR endocytosis by receptor clustering and the application of this phenomenon in the selective delivery of cytotoxic drugs into cancer cells in the form of multivalent cytotoxic conjugates. Łukasz Opaliński was awarded with several research grants, with EMBO Long Term Fellowship, Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education stipend for outstanding young scientists, Polish Prime Minister Award for outstanding scientific achievements leading to the habilitation degree (2020) and National Science Centre Award (2023) in Life Sciences.
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