Maria graduated from the interdisciplinary MISMaP programme at the University of Warsaw, combining biotechnology and chemistry. Next, she trained in structural biology during PhD studies at the University of Cambridge and a short research stay at SGC at the University of Oxford. Over the course of her postdoctoral work at CeMM in Vienna, she collaborated with systems, chemical and computational biologists and medical geneticists on a number of projects related to innate immunity, leukemia and some rare genetic conditions. In 2015, Maria returned to structural biology and Poland to help establish a protein crystallography laboratory at the newly opened BCRC and the Department of Chemistry. Her broad interest is in using three-dimensional structural models to explain protein function: e.g. the molecular mechanisms in RNA metabolism from viruses or bacteria to humans, or identifying the role of mutations underlying human diseases. She have also developed a passion for trying to translate my research findings into useful inventions through protein engineering and repurposing. Maria has worked with a local start-up to provide scientific support.