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Plastic pollution is a global issue, yet our understanding of its impact on organisms and ecosystems remains limited. My PhD thesis explores the presence of microplastics (MP) in river ecosystems, their interaction with freshwater hyporheic biofilms and specifically, the response of hyporheic biofilms to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pollution in the …

The analysis of drug residues in waste and environmental waters offers valuable insights into the epidemiological and environmental implications of drug use. This study employs a wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) approach to estimate the use of licit and illicit drugs and new psychoactive substances (NPS) among both general and specific populations. …

The subject of the doctoral dissertation is the development of coatings with improved protection of metals against corrosion and antifouling protection on structural steel S355 and aluminum alloy AA7075. S355 is a widely used metal in the construction, while AA7075 is mostly used in the transportation industry. Although they exhibit …

A reduction in agricultural productivity associated with water scarcity and land degradation, combined with the growing world population and malnutrition highlights the need for new alternative food sources. In this challenging field, Spirulina microalgae emerges as a promising candidate thanks to its high nutritional value and beneficial effect on human …

Traditional methods of studying viruses are limited in their ability to detect novel pathogens, but recent advances in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) are changing that. HTS allows researchers to probe deeply into the virome of various hosts and environments, identifying known and unknown viral species. However, a targeted approach, like quantitative …

Synthesized in green plants, cellulose is the most abundant natural biopolymer on the planet and is thus widely available, cheap and renewable. Furthermore, its hierarchical structure allows extraction of nanosized particles in the form of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), obtained with hydrolysis or cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), isolated through chemical, biological pretreatment …

Fusion technology has a great potential to safely provide an inexhaustible quantity of electricity without producing greenhouse gases and minimal hazardous waste compared to conventional energy sources, such as nuclear power plants. For materials intended for fusion plasma-facing applications, the essential properties are structural stability at elevated temperature, adequate thermal …

Cysteine cathepsins are endosomal proteases that are involved in lysosomal protein degradation. Additionally, they engage in specific biological processes, like bone degradation (CatK), antigen presentation (CatS) and pro-hormone processing (CatV and CatL). Their enhanced activity was described in numerous pathological states, like cancer and viral activation, which made them promising …

Air pollution is an inevitable problem that modern society has to face today, with particulate matter (PM) being the most dangerous part of it, threatening human health and the environment. Not all PM particles, however, are equally harmful, since the dangerous potential depends on their size and chemical composition, which …

Glioblastoma (GB) is the most common and aggressive primary tumour of the central nervous system. Despite maximal possible surgical resection of the tumours and aggressive treatment regimens with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, patient overall survival is less than 2 years, as patients eventually develop resistance to therapy, resulting in recurrent tumours. …