Date added: 2026-08-26
New materials, drives and protein-DNA models
Safer composites and a new drive system
Adam Olszewski, PhD, Eng., was selected for the scheme with his project ‘FreeFromFlame: formaldehyde-free wood-polymer composites with enhanced fire resistance’. His proposal was ranked 58th.
The researcher specialises in polymer technology and materials engineering. His research focuses, among other things, on polyurethane-wood composites and the use of natural raw materials in polymer materials. He also explored this topic in a project that was awarded under the National Science Centre's PRELUDIUM 22 call. In 2026, he was also among the winners of the START programme run by the Foundation for Polish Science.
A project by Dmytro Kondratenko, PhD, Eng., is entitled ‘Multi-motor drive system with a single voltage inverter and multi-phase electric machines’. His proposal was ranked 27th.
The researcher is affiliated with the Department of Electric Drives and Energy Conversion. His work focuses on power electronics and drive systems using multiphase machines. As part of his doctoral thesis, he developed a modulation method for a five-phase, three-level voltage inverter.
Dmytro Kondratenko scored 27 points, whilst Adam Olszewski scored 26 points. Both projects have been shortlisted for the first phase of the LIDER UP programme.
From mentoring to funding
LIDER UP is a new edition of the National Centre for Research and Development’s programme, which supports young researchers in independently conducting research and development projects and in preparing them for implementation.
In the first phase, participants will undergo training and receive individual mentoring. Once this phase is complete, they will be able to apply for funding to implement their projects. The maximum amount of funding available for a single project is PLN 2.5 million.
How a protein finds the right place on DNA
Aravind Selvaram Thirunavukarasu, PhD, from the Faculty of Chemistry, was also successful. The National Science Centre has awarded him PLN 609,390 to implement the project ‘Coarse-grained predictive models for modelling protein-DNA complexes’.
In a living cell, proteins constantly interact with DNA. They regulate gene expression, participate in the replication of genetic information and repair damage to genetic material. For this to be possible, they must find the right spot on a very long DNA molecule – sometimes a short sequence consisting of just a few base pairs amongst millions of others.
Accurately recreating this process in a computer simulation is currently very difficult. Even small protein-DNA complexes can require many weeks of computation, whilst larger structures cannot be reliably analysed using even the most detailed models.
The project aims to develop a more accurate and accessible method for modelling these interactions. The researcher intends to further develop the Martini 3 model, which is used in biomolecular simulations to predict better whether a particular protein will bind to a specific DNA sequence and how strong that bond will be.
The model parameters will be derived from data on approximately 100 different protein-DNA complexes. Where experimental structures are not available, predictions generated using AlphaFold3 will also be used.
The project was selected for funding under the SONATINA 10 call for proposals, aimed at early-career researchers who have recently obtained their PhD.
The outcome of the work is expected to be an open-source toolkit available to other research teams. This will make it easier to model processes related to gene regulation, the action of transcription factors and the organisation of DNA within the cell, without needing to build the entire model from scratch.