Solar Fuels Laboratory

Profile

Prof. Joanna Kargul
e-mail: j.kargul@cent.uw.edu.pl
phone: +48 22 55 43760
room: 02.171/ 02.130
ORCID: 0000-0003-1410-1905
SCOPUS ID: 6506590384

The sun powers almost all life on earth via the fundamental process of photosynthesis. The natural photosystems (photosystems I and II) are capable of capturing light and converting solar energy into chemical bonds within reduced carbon compounds. These are large macromolecular membrane protein complexes that together to form biological nanoscale solar energy converters operating at an internal quantum efficiency close to unity.

Solar energy conversion is one of the few renewable ways to produce clean energy to meet the increasing demands of modern civilization. In the era of global climate change, there is a strong need to understand photosynthetic processes and their regulatory basis, particularly in relation to solar fuel production in extreme environments.

Our research focuses on three main long-term objectives:

to understand the mechanisms of photosynthetic energy conversion at the molecular level in the extremophilic photosynthetic apparatus, using model extremophiles such as the red microalga Cyanidioschyzon merolae and cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus,
to dissect molecular mechanisms of photosynthetic adaptation under extreme conditions and fluctuating light,
to construct truly ‘green’, viable, biohybrid solar-to-fuel nanodevices that mimic the most crucial steps of the early stages of photosynthesis to produce fuels, such as molecular hydrogen and renewable carbon-based fuels.
As members of major European collaborative initiatives, the EuroSolarFuels (2011-2014) and PolTur/GraphESol (2016-present) consortia, we work on optimizing the construction and performance of biophotoelectrodes, which can be built into the heterojunction tandem devices to achieve efficient solar-to-hydrogen conversion.

Methods used in the Kargul lab include an array of chromatographic approaches (AEC, HIC, IMAC, SEC), biochemical techniques (SDS-PAGE, BN-PAGE, Western blotting, sucrose gradient fractionation etc.), molecular biology methods (RT-PCR, DNA cloning), spectroscopic methods (fluorescence and absorption spectroscopy), photoelectrochemistry, organic chemistry and bioinformatics. We also have close collaboration with top national and international experts in materials science, photovoltaics, AFM photophysics, and computational chemistry to characterize and optimize the electron and energy transfer processes within the constructed artificial leaf devices.

International collaborations:

• Kasim Ocakoglu, Mersin University, Turkey
• Roman Kouřil, Palacký University, Olomouc, the Czech Republic
• Radek Kaňa, Czech Academy of Sciences, Trebon, the Czech Republic
• Dwayne Miller, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg, Germany
• Johannes Messinger, Uppsala University/Umeå University, Sweden

National collaborations:

• Sebastian Maćkowski, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń
• Bartosz Trzaskowski, CeNT UW, Warsaw
• Dorota Pawlak, CeNT UW/ITME, Warsaw
• Anna Śrębowata, Institute of Physical Chemistry, PAS, Warsaw
• Adam Kubas, Institute of Physical Chemistry, PAS, Warsaw

Leader

Head of the Laboratory of Solar Fuels at the Centrum Nowych Technologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. She obtained a PhD in Biological sciences in 1999 from the University of Warwick, UK. Postdoctoral research conducted in the group of James Barber at Imperial College London, UK led to several discoveries of novel molecular mechanisms of photosynthetic adaptation to changing environment (e.g. dissecting the molecular components of state transitions) and refining the crystallographic structure of the PSII oxygen evolving complex. Habilitation in 2009 from the University of Warsaw (UW). Since 2011 Associate Professor having established an independent research group at the UW. In 2011 Prof. Kargul established a node for solar fuels research in Poland and has led several projects on application of robust natural light-harvesting molecular nanomachines for construction of biohybrid solar cells and solar-to-fuel devices. She has extensive experience and success in leading several national and international initiatives (e.g. Founding Partner of ESF EuroSolarFuels and H2020 SUNRISE consortia; Member of Scientific Executive Board of SUNERGY large-scale initiative) as well coordinating the bilateral Polish-Turkish consortium POLTUR/GraphESol which have all been focused on natural and semi-artificial solar energy conversion systems. She serves as the International Ambassador of the British Biochemical Society and serves on several editorial and strategic boards of the funding bodies (e.g. IJBCB, J Nanotech, Grants Committee of the Biochemical Society (UK), NAWA programme of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Expert in NZ1 Panel of the National Science Centre). Prof. Kargul’s highly interdisciplinary research spans structural biology, biochemistry, plant physiology, electrochemistry, biophysics and material science. In her current research she focuses on structural and mechanistic aspects of the function and adaptation of the natural photosynthetic apparatus in extremophilic cyanobacteria and microalgae. She and her group apply this fundamental knowledge for construction of biohybrid solar-to-fuel devices incorporating photosystems and various conductive and semi-conductive materials (e.g. graphene, silicon, hematite etc.). Over 60 publications including papers in EMBO J, Plant Cell, JBC, Advanced Functional Materials, J Mat Chem A and C, RSC Adv, with the Google Scholar h-index: 19; >2100 citations w/o self-citations; >60 international invited talks including 4 plenary lectures.

Team

Leader
Prof. Joanna Kargul

Postdocs
Miriam Izzo, PhD
Margot Jacquet, PhD

PhD Students
B. Ozan Eskikaya, MSc
Marcin Kuliński, MSc
Francesca Marchetto, MSc

Students
Piotr Lorek

Alumni:
Julian David Janna Olmos, PhD
Philippe Becquet, MSc
Anita Jarzębińska, MSc
Grzegorz Bubak, PhD Eng
Gleb Andryianau, MSc Eng
Tomasz Kalinowski, MSc
Paulina Misiukiewicz, MSc
Julia Dreksler, MSc
Gaweł Bojanowski, MSc
Jacek Rymuszka, MSc
Marcin Kleibert, MSc
Jędrzej Machtyl, MSc
Szymon Piaszczyński, MSc
Rafał Stachura, MSc
Szymon Górnisiewicz, MSc
Justyna Kiełbasa, MSc
Małgorzata Kucia, MSc
Małgorzata Kiliszek, PhD
Patrycja Haniewicz, PhD
Aleksandra Zimnoch, MSc
Natalia Cibor, MSc
Aleksandra Okrasa, MSc
Alexia Bankowski, BA
Aspen Vassallo, BA
Sergio Santaeufemia, PhD

Selected projects

Selected publications

• Szalkowski M., Kiliszek M., Harputlu E., Izzo M., Gokhan Unlu C., Mackowski S., Ocakoglu K., Kargul J., Kowalska D.
  Bimodal functionality of highly conductive nanostructured silver film towards improved performance of photosystem I-based graphene photocathode
  (2025) Bioelectrochemistry, 161, art. no. 108825
  DOI: 10.1016/j.bioelechem.2024.108825
• Jouhet J., Alves E., Boutté Y., Darnet S., Domergue F., Durand T., Fischer P., Fouillen L., Grube M., Joubès J., Kalnenieks U., Kargul J.M., Khozin-Goldberg I., Leblanc C., Letsiou S., Lupette J., Markov G.V., Medina I., Melo T., Mojzeš P., Momchilova S., Mongrand S., Moreira A.S.P., Neves B.B., Oger C., Rey F., Santaeufemia S., Schaller H., Schleyer G., Tietel Z., Zammit G., Ziv C., Domingues R.
  Plant and algal lipidomes: Analysis, composition, and their societal significance
  (2024) Progress in Lipid Research, 96, art. no. 101290
  DOI: 10.1016/j.plipres.2024.101290
• Marchetto F., Santaeufemia S., Lebiedzińska-Arciszewska M., Śliwińska M.A., Pich M., Kurek E., Naziębło A., Strawski M., Solymosi D., Szklarczyk M., Bulska E., Szymański J., Wierzbicka M., Allahverdiyeva Y., Więckowski M.R., Kargul J.
  Dynamic adaptation of the extremophilic red microalga Cyanidioschyzon merolae to high nickel stress
  (2024) Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, 207, art. no. 108365
  DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2024.108365
• Perin G., Dubini A., Milano F., Kargul J., Lambreva M.D.
  Editorial to special issue on Photosynthetic organisms for sustainable development
  (2024) Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, art. no. 109263
  DOI: 10.1016/j.plaphy.2024.109263
• Kargul J., Jacquet M.
  Biomolecular and Biohybrid Systems for Solar Energy Conversion
  (2023) International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 24 (9), art. no. 7794
  DOI: 10.3390/ijms24097794
• Jacquet M., Osella S., Harputlu E., Pałys B., Kaczmarek M., Nawrocka E.K., Rajkiewicz A.A., Kalek M., Michałowski P.P., Trzaskowski B., Unlu C.G., Lisowski W., Pisarek M., Kazimierczuk K., Ocakoglu K., Wiȩckowska A., Kargul J.
  Diazonium-Based Covalent Molecular Wiring of Single-Layer Graphene Leads to Enhanced Unidirectional Photocurrent Generation through the p-doping Effect
  (2022) Chemistry of Materials, 34 (8), pp. 3744 – 3758
  DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.2c00088
• S. Kozdra, M. Jacquet, J. Kargul, K. Hęclik, A. Wójcik, P. P. Michałowski
  Insight into structure-property relationship of organometallic terpyridine wires: Combined theoretical and experimental study
  (2022)Polyhedron, Volume 213, 1 February 2022, 115628
  DOI: 10.1016/j.poly.2021.115628
• Goyal, A., Szewczyk, S., Burdziński, G., Abram, M., Kargul, J., Gibasiewicz, K.
  Competition between intra-protein charge recombination and electron transfer outside Photosystem I complexes used for photovoltaic applications
  (2022) Photochem Photobiol Sciences, Volume 21, pages 319–336
  DOI: 10.1007/s43630-022-00170-x
• Szewczyk S., Goyal A., Abram M., Burdziński G., Kargul J., Gibasiewicz K.
  Electron Transfer in a Bio-Photoelectrode Based on Photosystem I Multilayer Immobilized on the Conducting Glass
  (2022) International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23 (9), art. no. 4774
  DOI: 10.3390/ijms23094774
• Szalkowski M., Kowalska D., Olmos J.D.J., Kargul J., Maćkowski S.
  Improving Photostability of Photosystem I-Based Nanodevice by Plasmonic Interactions with Planar Silver Nanostructures
  (2022) International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23 (6), art. no. 2976
  DOI: 10.3390/ijms23062976

Contact

Prof. Joanna Kargul
e-mail: j.kargul@cent.uw.edu.pl
phone: +48 22 55 43760
room: 02.171/ 02.130