Pawel Gluza

From nucleotide sugars to polysaccharides: How do plants control the delivery of substrates for cell wall biosynthesis and protein glycosylation?

Research summary:

The aim of Pawel’s Ph.D. project is the elucidation of the process of substrate delivery for cell wall biosynthesis in plant cells. In his research, he combines various protein-protein interaction studies, cutting edge microscopy, mass spectrometry and preparations of native complexes from Golgi-enriched samples to provide a full overview of the NSTs-GTs interplay in plant cells. In the long run, the goal of this research is to create tools allowing to tailor biomass via genetic engineering to produce custom materials with improved properties.

Project Duration: 2016-2020 (left MelPoPP and changed to full-time doctorate at UoM in October 2017)

Supervisors: 

• The University of Melbourne: Dr. Berit Ebert, A/ Prof. Joshua Heazlewood, Prof. Staffan Persson
• Max Planck Institute for Molecular Plant Physiology: Dr. Alexander Graf, Prof. Mark Stitt

Student Profile:

Pawel Gluza received his bachelor and master while working as a part of Department of Cellular Molecular Biology at the University of Wroclaw, where he researched the physiological properties of FtsH4 protease and the changes that its knockout imposes on the Arabidopsis mitochondrial sub-proteome. During the MSc studies, he was granted a chance to spend an internship at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany, while being involved in a project aiming to create a novel method of studying whole interactomes in plants.

After the graduation, he applied for prestigious International Max Planck Research School and was offered a position as a Ph.D. candidate in the freshly launched Melbourne-Potsdam joint Ph.D. program. However, due to departure of one of his supervisors on the German side of the project, he decided to pursue his doctorate full-time at the University of Melbourne.

In his spare time, he likes to row, run marathons and bring awesome people together

You can find Pawel on:
LinkedIn –  https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawelgluza/
Email –  pgluza@student.unimelb.edu.au