Miroslaw Cygler MSc, PhD

Born in lodz Poland, Dr. Cygler received his MSc from the Institute of Physics, and his PhD from the institute of Chemistry, both of the University of Lodz, Poland. Dr. Mirek Cygler joined the Department of Biochemistry, University of Saskatchewan in October 2011. Prior to joining the University of Saskatchewan Dr. Cygler was the Principal Reearch Officer and Head of the Macromolecular Research Group at the NRCs Biotechnology Resaerch Institute in Montrealthe  After his PHD he spent two years as a Research Associate at the Division of Biological Sciences, NRC, Canada working with one of the pioneers of crystallographic computing, Dr. FR Ahmed. Later he joined the laboratory of Dr. W.F. Anderson at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he worked on the problem of protein-nucleic acid interactions.

In 1987 he moved to the Biotechnology Research Institute in Montreal to organize the protein crystallography laboratory. Dr Cygler is closely associated with McGill University and holds an adjunct professor position in the Departments of Biochemistry and Anatomy and Cell Biology. He is a member of the American Crystallographic Association, the International Network of Protein Engineering Centers (INPEC) and the Protein Crystallography Beamline Design Team at Canadian Light Source. Dr Cygler has published over 200 papers and reviews and is currently on the Editorial Advisory boards of Journal of Biological Chemistry and Protein Engineering, Design and Selection journals. He is a recipient of the NRC Outstanding Research Achievement Award. His laboratory established medium-throughput pipeline encompassing all the steps from cloning to structure analysis.

His current research interest include: High-throughput structural biology and automation of all the steps from cloning to structure analysis; Structure and function of protein complexes, host-pathogen interactions, molecular view of enzymatic mechanism. Systems under study include bacterial O-antigen synthesis and export machinery, intracellular sulfur transport system, glycosaminoglycan synthesis and degradation and scaffolding proteins in eukaryotic signaling pathways. He has co-authored  over 240 scientific publications, with greater than 8400 citations and has an h-index of 41.

Dr. Cygler is a Member of the American Crystoallographic Association, the Protein Society, and the American Society for Microbiology.