Elzbieta Gralinska

Intro

Elzbieta Gralinska, Dr. rer. nat.

Computational Biologist & Data Scientist

Research focus:

• Clinical biomarkers
• Multi-omics data
• High-dimensional data projection methods
• Molecular interaction networks

In 2022 I received a Dr. rer. nat. title (PhD) in Bioinformatics from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics. In my doctoral project, under the supervision of Martin Vingron, we focused on developing a method for identification of cluster-specific genes from high-dimensional transcriptomics data. You can learn more about our project from the press release of MPIMG. An R package, implementing our method, is available on Bioconductor.

Currently, I am working as a postdoctoral scientist at Roche, focusing on biomarkers and cancer immunotherapies.

Bio

Research experience

Roche

2023 - ongoing: Postdoctoral Scientist

Roche Pharma Research & Early Development (pRED)

Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics

2022: Postdoctoral Researcher

2017 - 2022: PhD Candidate

Department of Computational Molecular Biology,
Transcriptional Regulation Group
Supervision: Martin Vingron

University of Lausanne

02 - 04.2017: Research Intern

Computational Cancer Biology Group
Supervision: David Gfeller

Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics

2015 - 2016: Student Assistant

Molecular Interaction Network Group
Supervision: Ulrich Stelzl

Central Forensic Laboratory of the Police

08 - 09.2015: Summer Intern

Department of Biology

German Rheumatism Research Centre Berlin (DRFZ)

2014 - 2015: Student Assistant

Signal Transduction Group
Supervision: Ria Baumgrass

Education

2017 – 2022: PhD in Bioinformatics

Freie Universität Berlin & International Max Planck Research School for Biology And Computation (IMPRS-BAC)

Thesis title: “Association Plots visualize cluster-specific genes from high-dimensional transcriptomics data”
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Martin Vingron (MPIMG)

2015 – 2016: Master of Science in Biotechnology

Technische Universität Berlin

Thesis title: “Tissue-specific network analysis of RNA-binding protein interactions”
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Stelzl (MPIMG)

2013 – 2015: Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology

Technische Universität Berlin

Thesis title: “The construction of a transcription factor network for Th2 cells by integration of global gene expression and DNA-binding data”
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Ria Baumgrass (DRFZ)

2012 – 2013: Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences

University of Warsaw

Specialization: Mathematics, Biotechnology

Publications

Papers

1. Bebelman M^*, Belicova L^*, Gralinska E, Jumel T, Lahree A, Sommer S, Shevchenko A, Zatsepin T, Kalaidzidis Y, Vingron M, Zerial M. Hepatocyte differentiation requires anisotropic expansion of bile canaliculi. Development (2024). doi: 10.1242/dev.202777. (link)
2. van der Weijden V, Stötzel M, Iyer D, Fauler B, Gralinska E, Shahraz M, Meierhofer D, Vingron M, Rulands S, Alexandrov T, Mielke T, Bulut-Karslioglu A. FOXO1-mediated lipid metabolism maintains mammalian embryos in dormancy. Nature Cell Biology (2024). doi: 10.1038/s41556-023-01325-3. (link)
3. Gralinska E and Vingron M. Association Plots: visualizing cluster-specific associations in high-dimensional correspondence analysis biplots. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C: Applied Statistics (2023). doi: 10.1093/jrsssc/qlad039. (link)
4. Rosebrock D^*, Arora S^*, Mutukula N, Volkman R, Gralinska E, Balaskas A, Aragonés Hernández A, Buschow R, Brändl B, Müller FJ, Arndt PF, Vingron M and Elkabetz Y. Enhanced cortical neural stem cell identity through short SMAD and WNT inhibition in human cerebral organoids facilitates emergence of outer radial glial cells. Nature Cell Biol (2022). doi: 10.1038/s41556-022-00929-5. (link)
5. Gralinska E, Kohl C, Sokhandan Fadakar B, Vingron M. Visualizing cluster-specific genes from single-cell transcriptomics data using Association Plots. JMB. 2022, 434(11), 167525. (link)
6. Belicova L, Repnik U, Delpierre J, Gralinska E, Seifert S, Ignacio Valenzuela J, Morales-Navarrete HA, Franke C, Räägel H, Shcherbinina E, Prikazchikova T, Koteliansky V, Vingron M, Kalaidzidis YL, Zatsepin T, Zerial M. Anisotropic expansion of hepatocyte lumina enforced by apical bulkheads. J Cell Biol. 2021 Oct 4;220(10):e202103003. doi: 10.1083/jcb.202103003. (link)
7. Jargosch M, Kröger S, Gralinska E, Klotz U, Fang Z, Chen W, Leser U, Selbig J, Groth D, Baumgrass R. Data integration for identification of important transcription factors of STAT6-mediated cell fate decisions. Genet Mol Res. 2016 Jun 24;15(2). doi: 10.4238/gmr.15028493. (link)

^*These authors contributed equally.

Theses

• Elzbieta Gralinska, "Association Plots visualize cluster-specific genes from high-dimensional transcriptomics data", PhD thesis, Freie Universität Berlin. 2022
• Elzbieta Gralinska, "Tissue-specific network analysis of RNA-binding protein interactions", Master thesis, Technische Universität Berlin. 2016
• Elzbieta Gralinska, "The construction of a transcription factor network for Th2 cells by integration of global gene expression and DNA-binding data", Bachelor thesis, Technische Universität Berlin. 2015

After work

Science-related topics are very close to my heart. That’s why in my free time I’m also involved in various activities and projects focusing on science promotion and communication. If you want to hear more, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.

• Young European Biotech Network e.V.
  YEBN e.V is a non-profit organization that focuses on building a bridge between academia and industry. As an Executive Board member, since 2020 I am actively participating in the life of YEBN e.V. In the Executive Board I am mainly involved in the administrative tasks of our organisation.
• Science diplomacy
  My adventure with science diplomacy began relatively recently, when I had a pleasure to become the member of the iGEM Youth Biodiversity Leadership Program 2022 , an initiative which aims to gather together iGEMers who are concerned about global biodiversity and which consists of training sessions in diplomacy and governance.
  I’ve also had a pleasure to receive an invitation to the “Responsibility Conference: Navigating the Future of Synthetic Biology”. The conference took place on October 26-27, 2022, in Paris, as a partner event of the iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) Grand Jamboree .
  Recently I was also selected as a member of the EU Science Diplomacy Working Group 2 : "making European diplomacy more strategic, effective and resilient through scientific evidence and foresight", launched by the European Commission. The working groups are composed of experts from both the science and diplomacy communities. The main goal of the created working groups is to develop jointly a set of recommendations that will help to develope future European framework for science diplomacy.
• Science communication
  Communicating science to non-scientists is of high importance, especially in the times of pandemic and growing anti-vaccine movements. I am especially interested in recording short sci-com videos and building a community of science enthusiasts. I am also the co-author of the book “Biologia Syntetyczna - Możliwości i Wyzwania” (“Synthetic Biology - Opportunities and Challenges”). The book was published by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education in cooperation with the Copernicus Science Center in Warsaw (2015).

Contact

For questions and comments please message me via LinkedIn.

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Elements

i = 0;

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';