About

Education, employment, research grants, awards, teaching and community service of Natalia Gumińska, PhD.

I have a PhD in molecular biology from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw and, in parallel, degrees in Polish philology (literary studies and linguistics) from the Faculty of Polish Studies.

My early research was on euglenids: intron removal order, circular RNAs, extrachromosomal DNA, and DNA barcoding for environmental samples. Since 2020 I have worked on RNA tailing, developing methods and software for nanopore direct RNA sequencing.

Employment

2020–present
Postdoctoral Researcher
Laboratory of RNA Biology (ERA Chairs Group), International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw

Poly(A) tail biology and nanopore direct RNA sequencing. Method development and research software, including ninetails and nanotail2, plus the laboratory’s sequencing metadata infrastructure.

Education

2025–present
Postgraduate studies, Python Data Science Engineer
Koźminski University, Warsaw
2021–2022
Postgraduate studies, Data Science with R (with honours)
Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw
2015–2020
PhD in Biology, molecular biology (with honours)
Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw
2012–2015
M.Sc. in Biotechnology
Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw
2012–2014
M.Sc. in Polish Philology, literary studies and linguistics (with honours)
Faculty of Polish Studies, University of Warsaw
2010–2013
B.Sc. in Biotechnology
Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw
2009–2012
B.Sc. in Polish Philology
Faculty of Polish Studies, University of Warsaw

Research grants

  • 2018–2021 Characteristics of circular extrachromosomal DNA in euglenids (Euglenida). Polish National Science Centre, Preludium 14 (2017/27/N/NZ2/01321). Principal investigator.
  • 2017–2019 Evaluation of diversity, species composition and population dynamics of phototrophic euglenids in environmental samples from a selected hypereutrophic habitat, based on the V2 18S rDNA region. University of Warsaw, Faculty of Biology research grant for young scientists.

Awards and scholarships

  • 2026 Prof. W. Krzyżosiak Award for the publication Re-adenylation by TENT5A enhances efficacy of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines (Nature, 2025), as a team member. Committee on Molecular Cell Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences.
  • 2024 Best poster presentation, 29th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society, Edinburgh.
  • 2023 Best poster presentation, 1st Polish RNA Meeting, Warsaw.
  • 2022 Best poster presentation, 27th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society, Boulder.
  • 2019 Rector’s award for scientific achievement (team member).
  • 2019 Best poster presentation, 8th European Congress of Protistology, Rome.
  • 2017 Holz-Conner Travel Award, ISOP annual meeting, Prague.
  • 2016 Rector’s award for scientific achievement (team member).
  • 2015–2020 Rector’s scholarship for PhD students.
  • 2009–2014 Rector’s scholarship for academic performance, and Indeks Start2Star Scholarship.

Teaching

  • 2026 A tail of tails: computer vision in nanopore analysis. Lecturer, Advanced Path mentoring and use-case presentation, Girls Code Fun Foundation, Warsaw.
  • 2024 Nanopore Direct RNA Sequencing Workshop. Lecturer, Adam Mickiewicz University, Excellence Initiative Research University (IDUB), Poznań.

Community service

  • 2020–2023 Postdoc Representative, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology.
  • 2016–2018 Secretary of the Electoral Committee, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw.

Courses and certificates

  • 2023 Nature Masterclasses trainer-led workshop, Getting Published: Effectively Communicating Your Research (online).
  • 2021 An introduction to nanopore direct RNA sequencing, Physalia, Berlin.
  • 2020 Introduction to statistics in R, Physalia, Berlin.
  • 2019 EMBL course, Shift your DNA and RNA Sequencing Library Preparation into Hyper-Drive, EMBL Heidelberg.
  • 2018 Basic Python programming and data analysis for biologists, Nencki Institute, Warsaw.
  • 2016 Genome Sequencing (Bioinformatics II) and Finding Hidden Messages in DNA (Bioinformatics I), UC San Diego; Introduction to Genomic Technologies, Johns Hopkins University (Coursera).

Outside work

Digital art, tabletop and computer RPGs, fantasy, and music: rock, metal and classical. More on the Side quests and Illustrations pages.

Publications Software Contact

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