dr hab., prof. UR Justyna Ruchała

Informacje

My scientific work began in 2011 when I started my PhD studies at the University of Rzeszow. Since that time and until now, I work on the metabolic engineering of non-conventional yeasts using these organisms as a cell factory for the production of biofuels and high-value chemicals. I am co-author of 28 articles in peer-reviewed international journals with a total impact factor exceeding above 120. I participate/participated in several research projects supported by the National Centre of Science and Ministry of Education and Science. The main of my research topics aims in the construction of advanced yeast strains capable of effective production of bioethanol from 2nd, most abundant sugar on the planet, xylose, using thermotolerant yeast Ogataea polynorpha under high temperature around 45-48 ^oC. I have found for the first time the specific important role of the transcription activator Cat8 in this process (part of this work was supported by FEMS Research Grants). Besides, I showed the importance of special organelle peroxisomes in xylose alcoholic fermentation and of two peroxisomal enzymes, transketolase and transaldolase, the results were published (10.1186/s13068-018-1203-z). I also have found that autophagy is involved in the regulation of xylose fermentation. Using the mentioned observations and the modern methods of metabolic engineering, I constructed strains of O. polymorpha which produce 40 times elevated amounts of ethanol from xylose relative to the wild-type strains. I published particulary important rewiev (10.1093/femsre/fuaa069; IF 16.408) summarizing the latest information on the metabolic pathways in several yeast species during the conversion of all natural pentose sugars, and not only xylose and L-arabinose which are often discussed in the literature.

Research stays abroad:
09/2017 – 12/2017
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria; participant of Bilateral Polish-Austrian Personnel Exchange Grant,
The title of the task: "Engineering of Pichia pastoris yeast strain capable of overproduction of aminoriboflavin by using Golden Gate method "
Adviser: prof. Diethard Mattanovich
09/2016
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna, Austria; participant of Bilateral Polish-Austrian Personnel Exchange Grant,
The title of the task: "Engineering of Pichia pastoris yeast strain capable of overproduction of aminoriboflavin and roseoflavin",
Adviser: prof. Diethard Mattanovich
04/2016 – 07/2016
Institute of Cell Biology, NAS of Ukraine, Lviv, Ukraine; Laureate of  „FEMS Grant Fellowship”,
The title of the project: "Studying the role of CAT8 transcriptional activator in the yeast xylose alcoholic fermentation",
Adviser: Dr. Kostyantyn Dmytruk
10/2015
University of Liège - Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Gembloux, Belgium; participant of Bilateral Polish-Wallonian Personnel Exchange Grant,
The title of the task: “Investigation of glutathione production in  bioreactors by Hansenula polymorpha recombinant strains",
Adviser: prof. Patrick Fickers
01/2015
KMUTT King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand; participant of ISOO scholarship,
The title of the project: "CAT8 deletion from ethanol overproducing strain from xylose of Hansenula polymorpha",
Adviser: Dr. Nitnipa Soontorngun
03/2014
Institute of Cell Biology, NAS of Ukraine, Lviv, Ukraine; participant of Scientific integration of the Polish – Ukrainian borderland area in  the field of monitoring and detoxification of harmful substances in the environment,
The title of the task: "Methods for the determination of  glutathione produced by mutants strains of Hansenula polymorpha",
Adviser: prof. Andriy Sibirny)
01/2013 – 07/2013
Lund University, Lund, Sweden; participant of Visby project,
The title of the task: "Disruption of genes of Dekkera bruxellensis yeast involved in pathways of amino acid biosynthesis",
Adviser: prof. Jure Piskur

Choosen invited lectures:
2016
Ruchala J, The impact of CAT8 transcriptional activator on regulation of  xylose alcoholic fermentation in non-conventional yeasts. International Symposium on Cell Biology jointly with 5th Ukrainian Congress for Cell Biology, Odessa, Ukraine
2017
Ruchala J,  Kurylenko O, Nielsen JB, Dmytruk K, Sibirny A. Peroxisomes are indispensable for xylose alcoholic fermentation in the methylotrophic but not in the non-methylotrophic yeasts. 7th  International Weigl Conference, Lviv, Ukraine.
2018
Ruchala J, Kurylenko O, Dmytruk K, Sibirny A. Peroxisomes are  important for xylose alcoholic fermentation in Ogataea polymorpha. Non-conventional Yeasts: from Basic Research to  Application, Rzeszow, Poland
2018
Ruchala J, Kurylenko O, Vasylyshyn R, Bratiychuk D, Kruk B, Dmytruk K, Sibirny A. Role of the peroxisomes and pentose-phosphate pathway in  xylose alcoholic fermentation of conventional and non-conventional yeasts. 4th Congress of Baltic Microbiologists, Gdansk, Poland.
2018
Ruchala J, Kurylenko O, Kruk B, Dmytruk K, Sibirny A. The role of  peroxisomes in xylose alcoholic fermentation in the thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast Ogataea polymorpha. Advances in Microbiology and Biotechnology, Lviv, Ukraine.
2018
Ruchala J, Kurylenko O, Vasylyshyn R, Bratiychuk D, Dmytruk K, Sibirny A. Role of the peroxisomes and pentose phosphate pathway In xylose alcoholic fermentation In the thermotolerant yeast Ogataea polymorpha. FEBS 3+ Meeting - XI Parnas Conference – Young Scientists Forum. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for Innovative Medicine. Kyiv, Ukraine.
2019
Ruchala J, Kurylenko O, Dmytruk K, Sibirny A. Importance of  peroxisomes and peroxisomal enzymes of pentosephosphate pathway for xylose alcoholic fermentation in the thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast Ogataea polymorpha. 6th Ukrainian Congress for Cell Biology with international representation, Yaremche Ukraine.
2019
Ruchala J, Tsyrulnyk A, Fayura L,  Fedorovych D, Motyka O, Marx H, Mattanovich D, Sibirny A.  Construction of the riboflavin-overproducing strain of the yeast Komagataella pastoris producing flavin antibiotic aminoriboflavin. 8th International Weigl Conference, Lodz, Poland
2019
Ruchala J, Tsyrulnyk A, Fayura L, Fedorovych D, Motyka O, Marx M, Mattanovich D, Sibirny A. Construction of the riboflavin-overproducing strain of the yeast Komagataella pastoris producing the flavin antibiotic aminoriboflavin, The 35th International Specialised Symposium on  Yeasts, Antalya, Turkey.
2020
Ruchala J. Construction of the recombinant yeasts Komagataella phaffii and Candida famata producing bacterial antibiotics aminoriboflavin and  roseoflavin, CA18229_YEAST4BIO 1st WG meeting, Budapest, Hungary.
2021
Ruchala J. The role of transcription factors in xylose alcoholic fermentation in the yeast Ogataea polymorpha. 1st International Conference of Young Scientists of the Institute of Cell Biology and  the  University of Rzeszow “Current Issues in Cell Biology and  Biotechnology”, Lviv, Ukraine.

Other key information impacting the evaluation of the academic and research career
From 2019, I am also a participant (substitute of MC member) of the international COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) program. The title of the program is: "Non-conventional yeasts for the production of bioproducts (Yeast4Bio), COST Action CA18229, I am a member of the group WG4: Bioproducts generation from the  sugars platform by non-conventional yeasts, and since 2022 I a Vice-Leader of this group.