I began my scientific journey as a chemist in Pavel Jungwirth group. In Pavel Jungwirth group, I was working on interactions of proteins with the cell membrane, in particular on calcium signalling and the allostery and membrane binding of neuronal calcium sensors. We were investigating the influence of calcium ions, myristoyl tail at the N-terminus of protein and electrostatics interactions on binding to the membrane. We mostly utilised methods of molecular dynamics – coarse-grained and all-atomistic simulations.

Mason-Pfizer Monkey Virus (MPMV)

My first project was about Mason-Pfizer Monkey Virus (MPMV), monkey analogue to human HIV virus. In this project, we were interested in the behaviour of its matrix protein in the proximity of a lipid bilayer. Back then I learned coarse-grained modelling of larger systems (yes, back then it was a challenge) together with a first introduction to myristoyl anchoring and it's crucial role in protein-membrane binding.

Recoverin

The next step took me further into the mechanism and importance of myristoyl anchoring. Recoverin, which was the protein we looked at, is a calcium sensing protein which is localised in our retina and is part of a complex cascade responsible for adaptation to light. Recoverin is found in two states - open and closed - and undergoes transition between them with the change of calcium concentration. When recoverin transitions to the open state, the myristoyl anchor comes out of the protein core and allows recoverin to bind into the membrane. You can see an example of this in the following video.

In the middle of my masters, I switched gears and started working on human behaviour. During my masters, I was working with Rony Paz investigating the influence of reinforcement learning on generalisation in humans using mathematical modelling and Bayesian statistics. I had been also exploring the field of neuroeconomics, namely gambling, risk and lost aversion, and decision making.

Currently, I am a PhD student in Michal Ramot lab trying to decompose complex tasks like remembering people and identities into individual, independent, simple tasks like face memory, face perception, general cognition, general memory etc. The goal is then to relate those to brain activity using fMRI methods and use neurofeedback to improve individual components.