On June 18, 2003 Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Prof. Michał Kleiber, Minister of Science visited IIMCB and Science Festival School. The visit was a part of two-day visit of the Prince in our country.
On October 22, 2004 Prime Minister Marek Belka was visiting research institutes located in Ochota Campus. The topic of his visit was: "From genome - through proteins - to modern therapy". He visited Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering and The Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. Afterwards a press conference was held at The Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology.
During his visit at IIMCB, Prime Minister Marek Belka was invited to see the Laboratory of Structural Biology Max Planck/PAN, where Dr. Matthias Bochtler gave a short presentation on protein crystals. Also some of laboratory equipment was demonstrated to our guest.
On January 14, 2005 Prof. Balcerowicz was visiting research institutes located in Ochota Campus. He visited Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering and The Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. Meetings with researchers were concluded during discussion "Can we achieve economic growth without supporting research?"
While his short stop at IIMCB, Prof Balcerowicz was visiting two of our laboratories: Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Protein Engineering and Laboratory of Structural Biology Max Planck/PAN. In the Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Protein Engineering Dr. Janusz M. Bujnicki presented his sucessful development of bioinformatics tools and their use for large-scale biological data analysis. At the Laboratory of Structural Biology Dr. Matthias Bochtler explained how recombinant protein expression systems are generated, how proteins are purified and crystalized, how protein structures are solved and used and how the research is funded.
To make the experience practical, Prof. Balcerowicz had a chance to look at the equipment and an atomic model of a protein, presented together with the experimentally derived electron density.
As every year, IIMCB together with Polish Children`s Fund organised a special lecture for tallented high school pupils. Prof. Maciej Zylicz gave a lecture (7 March 2005) on molecular chaperones, afterwards our guests have visited IIMCB labs.
On September 15, 2006, Richard Roberts visited IIMCB, following invitation of Dr. Janusz Bujnicki. Roberts received Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1993 (together with Phillip Sharp) for discovery of splicing in adenovirus. It has been established since that the discontinuous gene structure discovered by Roberts and Sharp is the most common structure found in eukaryotes. In addition to having important implications for various genetic diseases, this structure is believed to drive evolution by allowing information from different parts of the gene to be brought together in new combinations. Currently Roberts’ research interest is focused mainly on nucleic acids-modifying enzymes. As he points out “the main theme of my work in biology has centered on the belief that we must know the structure of the molecules we work with if we are to understand how they function”. Roberts is a Research Director at New England Biolabs. Being the Editor-in-Chief of “Nucleic Acids Research” he is a supporter of “open access” scientific journals. Dr. Richard Roberts is Janusz Bujnicki’s mentor in Young Investigators Program of EMBO.
On February 28, 2007 Minister of Science and Higher Education, Prof. Michal Sewerynski, state secretary at MNiSW Prof. Stefan Jurga and vice secretary of state at MNiSW Prof. Krzysztof Jan Kurzydlowski attended press conference to present the idea of National Research and Development Centre. The meeting with media and science representatives was held at Ochota Campus (Warsaw University, Faculty of Biology building). After the conference Minister Sewerynski and a group of journalists visited several research institutes located in Ochota Camups including IIMCB. Guided by Prof. Jacek Kuznicki and Prof. Michal Witt, Minister Sewerynski visited School of Science Festival. Further Prof. Sewerynski was introduced by Dr. hab. Urszula Wojda to Alzheimer Disease research performed at the Laboratory of Neurodegeneration.
On June 2, 2008, IIMCB visited Prof. Annette Schavan, the Federal Minister of Education and Research and Rita Sűssmuth, the President of German-Polish Foundation for Science. The German delegation was hosted by Prof. Jacek Kuźnicki, Institute’s Director. The Foundation was created by German and Polish governments to deal mainly with problems of energetics and biological environment preservation, also in the field of social sciences and humanities.
Mrs. Sűssmuth is a former Leader of Bundestag.
On July 11, 2008 a delegation consisting of Director General of the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) Prof. Andre Syrota, Deputy Director for European Affairs of INSERM Philippe Arrhets and Deputy Scientific Attache of French Embassy in Warsaw Guillame Giraudet visited IIMCB. The delegation was hosted by Deputy Director of IIMCB Prof. Michał Witt and Prof. Maciej Żylicz, President of the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). During the meeting achievements of the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology were presented and programs of INSERM and FNP were discussed, followed by signing of a bilateral agreement.
On October 27-28, 2008, Ukrainian Scientific Club (USC) hosted Director of the IIMCB Prof. Jacek Kuznicki and Dr. Marcin Nowotny, leader of Laboratory of protein Structure. USC organized round table “Research organization in the 21st century: experience and achievements of the IIMCB” at the Ministry of Education and Science. Top decision-makers from the both National Academy of Science and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine were present together with leading researchers in the molecular and cell biology field. Further developments of bilateral relations are expected in near future.
On November 4, 2008, Prof. Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society was visiting our Institute. The delegation of: Prof. P. Gruss, Prof. K. Hahlbrock, Dr. Sabine Zimmermann and Mrs Kristina Schmucker were hosted by Prof. Jacek Kuznicki, Director of IIMCB. During the meeting achievements of the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology were presented and development of joint IIMCB – MPS venture was discussed.