Wiktoria Ragin-Oh from the Department of Structural Biology of Eukaryotes, represented IBCH PAS at the 27th Congress and General Assembly of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), held in Calgary, Canada. Participation in the event was made possible thanks to a Travel Grant that the researcher received as part of this year’s internal competition at IBCH PAS. The IUCr Congress is one of the most important international events dedicated to crystallography and structural sciences.

The poster entitled “Pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase 1 (PYCR1), a new target for anticancer therapeutics” received an IUCr Journal Award in the Structural Biology category. The award represents an important distinction both for the researcher herself and for the research presented at the Congress.

The results focused on the identification of inhibitors of pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase 1 (PYCR1), a mitochondrial enzyme involved in cancer cell metabolism. The work is part of a multidisciplinary project led by Milosz Ruszkowski, PhD, DSc, Assoc. Prof., Head of the Department of Structural Biology of Eukaryotes, combining structural biology with high-throughput approaches to identify novel compounds with therapeutic potential.

The project brings together researchers from across IBCH PAS, including Dominika Czerwonka, PhD, from the Department of Eukaryotic Structural Biology, as well as Dorota Kwiatek-Rożek, PhD, and Krzysztof Żukowski, PhD, from the Laboratory of Molecular Assays and Imaging.

Congratulations, and we wish you continued success!

The project is financed by the National Science Centre (Poland), grant number: 2021/43/B/NZ7/01611.