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Full-time Faculty

Maurycy Daroch

Title: Associate Professor
Research direction: Environmental Engineering / Biomass Energy

Introduction

Maurycy obtained MSc (Eng) degree in 2006 in Biotechnology from Lodz University of Technology in his native Poland. He then moved to University of Liverpool (UK) where he obtained prestigious Marie Sklodowska-Curie EST Fellowship. He obtained PhD degree in 2011 in the field of Biological Sciences. The same year he moved to Peking University School of Environment and Energy to take a post-doctoral position. He currently holds position of tenured associate professor and runs an independent research group.

Research areas

•Alternative carbon fixation pathways in phototrophs

•Biodiversity, taxogenomics and biotechnology of thermophilic cyanobacteria

•Ploidy control and adaptive laboratory evolution of phototrophs

•Carbon valorisation and biorefining

Major research projects and academic contributions

Maurycy has led and to lesser extent participated in more than 10 research projects including: 1 NSF China Foreign Outstanding Young Scholar Project, 1 NSFC General Project, 2 NSFC Young Foreign Scholar Projects and several project founded by municipal government.

He has published more than 70 academic SCI papers, most notable being those in: Trends in Biotechnology, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, Bioresource Technology, etc. He is a leading author of 3 highly cited papers.

Current research portfolio can be found at:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8183-8854

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maurycy-Daroch

Teaching

Maurycy teaches two English-taught post graduate courses: New Energy Chemical Engineering and Molecular Environmental Biotechnology using Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach.

Contact Information

Address:Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School Building E Room 306

Email: m.daroch@pkusz.edu.cn

Education backgroud

2001.10 to 2006.07: Lodz University of Technology (Poland), Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Science, MSc (Eng)

2006.10 to 2011.07: University of Liverpool (UK), School of Biological Sciences, PhD

Employment

2011.10 to 2013.09: Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, post doctoral researcher

2013.10 to 2015.08: Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, assistant professor

2015.09 to 2024.12: Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, associate professor

2025.01 until now: Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, tenured associate professor

Student Profile

Maurycy supervised successful training of 1 doctoral and 10 master's students;

Currently, there are 4 doctoral students and 10 master's students in the research group.

Recruitment

Annually 2 MSc (Res) and 1 PhD students are recruited to the group. Simultaneously we are continuously looking for post-doctoral candidates. We are particularly interested in candidates with strong background in environmental engineering, synthetic biology, microbiology, biotechnology, plant science and other related disciplines. Candidates with working proficiency in English are preferred all other skills being equal.

If you are interested in applying to join the group, please email directly to Maurycy.

Representative papers

1.Daroch M*, You D, Rasul F, Liu X and Jiang Y (2025) C1 photochemotrophy – rethinking one-carbon metabolism in phototrophs, Trends in Biotechnol

2. Tang J, Jiang Y, Hu Z, Zhou H, You D, Daroch M* (2024) Genomic and phenotypic characterization of Thermosynechococcus-like strains reveals eight species within the genus Thermosynechococcus and a novel genus Parathermosynechococcus gen. nov. Mol Phyl Evol 197: 108094. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2024.108094

3. Klepacz-Smolka A, Shah MR., Jiang Y, Zhong Y, Chen P, Pietrzyk D, Szelag R, Ledakowicz S, Daroch M* (2024) Microalgae are not an umbrella solution for power industry waste abatement but could play a role in their valorization, Crit Rev Biotechnol 44 (7) 1296-1324. doi: 10.1080/07388551.2023.2284644

4. Jiang Y, Tang J, Liu X and Daroch M* (2023) Polyphasic characterization of a novel hot-spring cyanobacterium Thermocoleostomius sinensis gen. et sp. nov. and genomic insights into its carbon concentration mechanism. Front. Microbiol. 14:1176500. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1176500

5. Riaz, S., Jiang, Y., Xiao, M., You, D., Klepacz-Smółka, A., Rasul, F., Daroch, M.*, (2022). Generation of miniploid cells and improved natural transformation procedure for a model cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. Front. Microbiol. 13:959043. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.959043

6. Tang, J., Shah, M.R., Yao, D., Jiang, Y., Du, L., Zhao, K., Li, L., Li, M., Waleron, M.M., Waleron, M., Waleron, K., Daroch, M.*, (2022). Polyphasic identification and genomic insights of Leptothermofonsia sichuanensis gen. sp. nov., a novel thermophilic cyanobacteria within Leptolyngbyaceae. Front. Microbiol. 13. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.765105

7. Tang, J., Zhou, H., Yao, D., Riaz, S., You, D., Klepacz-Smółka, A., Daroch, M.*, (2022). Comparative genomic analysis revealed distinct molecular components and organization of CO2-concentrating mechanism in thermophilic cyanobacteria. Front. Microbiol. 13:876272. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.876272

8. Riaz S, Xiao M, Chen P, Li M, Cui Y, Daroch M*. (2021) The genome copy number of the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus E542 is controlled by growth phase and nutrient availability. Appl Environ Microbiol 87:e02993-20. doi: 10.1128/AEM.02993-20.

9. Kaczmarek, M. B., Struszczyk-Swita, K., Xiao, M., Szczęsna-Antczak, M., Antczak, T., Gierszewska, M., Steinbüchel, A., Daroch M.* (2021). Polycistronic expression system for Pichia pastoris composed of chitino- and chitosanolytic enzymes. Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 9, 1–14. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2021.710922.

10. Liang Y, Tang J, Luo Y, Kaczmarek MB, Li X., Daroch M.* (2019) Thermosynechococcus as a thermophilic photosynthetic microbial cell factory for CO2 utilisation. Bioresource Technology 278 255–265. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2019.01.089

11. Tang, J.; Jiang, D.; Luo, YF.; Liang, YM.; Li, LH.;Shah, MR.; Daroch, M.* (2018) Potential new genera of cyanobacterial strains isolated from thermal springs of western Sichuan, China. Algal Research 31 14-20. doi: 10.1016/j.algal.2018.01.008

12. Shah, MMR., Liang, Y, Cheng, JJ, Daroch, M.* (2016). Astaxanthin-producing green microalga Haematococcus pluvialis: from single cell to high value commercial products. Front. Plant Sci. 7:531. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2016.00531

ADDRESS

School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, University Town of Shenzhen, Nanshan District,Shenzhen 518055, P.R.China

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