Assoc. Prof. Krystyna Skalicka-Woźniak (PhD, DSc)

studied pharmacy at the Medical University of Lublin, Poland and received her Master’s degree in 2002. She completed her PhD in pharmacognosy with Prof. Kazimierz Głowniak in 2008 at the Medical University, and her dissertation was awarded with a Prime Minister Award for the best Doctoral Dissertation. Since 2010 she has been the Head of The Medicinal Plant Unit in Lublin. After habilitation in 2015, she was appointed as an Assoc. Prof. at the Medical University of Lublin. She has received several awards for her research, including one for Outstanding Young Scientists for a period of three years or The Ministry of Health for outstanding achievements or Ministry of Health first dgr for outstanding habilitation thesis. She has published more than 90 scientific papers, mostly in international journals. Her research interests include the discovery of bioactive compounds in plants, and the optimization of modern extraction and chromatographic techniques. The focus of her work for the past few years was the application of counter-current chromatography (CCC) for the isolation of natural products, particularly coumarins and terpenoids, and their biological evaluation for antimicrobial, antiviral, anticancer, spasmolytic, apoptotic, and antioxidant activities, as well as for Central Nervous System activity (epilepsy, anxiety and memory-related behavior in mice and zebrafish models). Her experience with CCC was acquired through a training period in a world-leading research center, the Brunel Institute of Bioengineering at Brunel University in London, and she is currently the leading practitioner of the applications of this technique in Poland. She is currently serving as a Subject Editor of the journal Phytochemistry Letters (Elsevier) and as General Secretary of Phytochemical Society of Europe.

Abstract: How the power of liquids can be used to discover natural products

Nature has been a source of therapeutic agents for thousands of years, and an impressive number of modern drugs have been derived from natural sources, many based on their use in traditional medicine. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 75% of people still rely on plant-based traditional medicines for primary health care globally. Yet only a small fraction of the world’s biodiversity has been thoroughly explored in the context drug discovery or chemotaxonomy. The development of new, specific, and efficient chromatographic methods permits the easy screening and identification of phytochemicals and potential bioactive hits, as well as standardization of herbal medicines.