Microbiology

Biography

Dr. Bozena Futoma-Kol‚och graduated from University of Wrocl‚aw in 2004. She received her PhD mentored by Prof. W. Doroszkiewicz in microbiology from the University of Wrocław in 2008. After that she has held academic position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology in the Institute of Genetics and Microbiology at University of Wrocl‚aw. She is a member of Polish Society of Microbiologists (which belongs to the Federation of European Microbiological Societies - FEMS), European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases - ESCMID, and International Complement Society - ICS. She has published more than 50 papers in national and international journals, 30 presentations at congresses, with several awards. Dr. Futoma-Kołoch's research program focuses on the bacterial surface antigens: lipopolysaccharide (LPS, endotoxin) and outer membrane proteins (OMP) as molecular targets of the protective immune response against pathogenic bacteria, especially Salmonella. Investigations on susceptibility of Salmonella strains possessing sialic acid-containing LPS to human serum (HS) resulted in many publications about the role of atypical bacterial endotoxin in determining complement system activation through the alternative pathway. It was also shown that differential sensitivity of tested bacteria to HS might be due to a weaker C3 serum protein activation on strongly sialylated LPS and a binding of C3 components to the OMP.

Research Interest

Immunology, Microbiology, Molecular Biology