The European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) has announced the results of this year's installation grant competition. Among the 10 winners from six European countries was dr Grzegorz Grabe, assistant professor in the Department of Structural Biology at the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG and MUG.

EMBO is an international organisation with more than 2 000 outstanding scientists from all over Europe and also from non-European countries (under the EMBO Global Activities programme). EMBO's mission is to strive for excellence in the life sciences, to support talented researchers at all stages of their careers, with a special focus on young scientists, to stimulate scientific exchange and to help create an optimal research environment.

Among EMBO's flagship programmes is the installation grants programme (EMBO Installation Grants). It aims to stimulate the establishment of laboratories and research groups in the countries covered by the programme (currently these are: Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Portugal, Montenegro and Turkey), and to encourage outstanding scientists to conduct research there (one of the conditions for applying is that the candidate must have spent a minimum of two years in the four-year period preceding the application outside the country where the grant will be implemented). The grant is €50,000 per year for five years, co-financed by the EMBO and the relevant institution in the country where the research project will be conducted (in Poland it is the Ministry of Science and Higher Education).

The 2025 installation grants were awarded to ten researchers, including as many as three from Poland. Among them was an assistant professor from the Department of Structural Biology at the Institute of Biotechnology of the Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology UG and MUG. Under the grant, Dr Grzegorz Grabe will conduct research on the survival and virulence (virulence, the ability to enter and multiply in host cells) of the bacterium Salmonella enterica, which infects more than 15 million people a year. Dr G. Grabe's research within the newly established laboratory may contribute to a better understanding of host-pathogen interactions and, consequently, to the development of new antibacterial therapies.

‘I have been working on the topic of virulence and mechanisms supporting the survival of Salmonella bacteria for many years,’ said dr Grzegorz Grabe. ‘Thanks to the EMBO IG grant, I will be able to lead a newly established research group, in which we will study in detail the processes affecting the survival of pathogenic bacteria and their interaction with the host organism. Our main objective is to understand the molecular mechanisms affecting the survival and virulence of dangerous bacteria for humans, such as Salmonella, which infects 15 million people annually. Our research has great potential to improve the treatment of bacterial infections, which are an increasingly serious burden on human and animal health. The EMBO IG grant is first and foremost an honour for me and an appreciation of the relevance of past and future research directed at further understanding the dynamics of biological processes critical to bacterial pathogenesis. I am delighted that I will be able to take up this scientific challenge right here in Gdańsk, where my scientific adventure began.’

Dr Grzegorz Grabe's project is important not only for the development of science in the context of basic research but also in terms of its potential practical application in public health care. The EMBO installation grants are among the most prestigious in the field of life sciences.

‘This prestigious grant highlights that there is room for top talent at the University of Gdańsk. Thanks to people like Dr Grzegorz Grabe, we are conducting research at the highest level. And this is just the beginning,’ said prof. dr hab. Wiesław Laskowski, UG Vice-Rector for Scientific Research.

Congratulations!

The call for applications for the next edition of the EMBO Installation Grants programme will start at the end of January 2025. Details can be found on the grantor's website: Installation Grants - Application - EMBO.

Dr Grzegorz Grabe graduated from the Interuniversity Faculty of Biotechnology of UG & MUG. In 2016, he received his PhD at Imperial College London, where he studied the virulence mechanisms of Salmonella bacteria. During postdoctoral fellowships at Imperial College London and Harvard Medical School in Boston, he analysed the functional and regulatory mechanisms of bacterial stress response systems, the so-called toxin-antitoxin modules. In 2023, with the help of a POLONEZ BIS return grant, he returned to his home department and undertook further research focused on exploring the dynamics of these systems. A year later, he was awarded an OPUS26 grant, where the object of his group's research is the relationship between the Salmonella bacterium and the host ubiquitination system.