Research

Marcin Poręba, PhD, DSc, prof. of PWr, works at both the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Medicine at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. He is a specialist in biological chemistry and bioimaging. His research focuses on the design and synthesis of innovative peptide-based chemical tools for detecting the activity of proteolytic enzymes, utilizing fluorescence techniques and mass cytometry. In addition, he investigates the mechanisms of cell death pathways using these tools, aiming to better understand the role of proteolytic signaling in pathological conditions. Dr. Poręba’s research group is also focusing on the development of a new generation of cytotoxic antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer therapy.

In his independent research, Dr. Poręba was the first in the world to combine protease chemical probes, for enzyme activity assessment, with mass cytometry (CyTOF), creating a novel technology that enables multiparametric analysis of enzyme activity in complex biological systems. This breakthrough made it possible to profile caspase activity in specific subpopulations of immune cells and provided valuable data for the diagnosis of hematological malignancies. Building on these achievements, in 2018 he established Poland’s first mass cytometry laboratory at Wrocław University of Science and Technology. This facility remains globally unique - his team is the only research group to use chemical probes with unnatural amino acids to analyze the activity of enzymes, primarily proteases, but also protein kinases.

Education

2020, Habilitation with distinction, chemical sciences, Wrocław University of Technology (PWr)

2014, PhD with distinction, chemical sciences, PWr

Current Employment

From 03.2025 - Head of the Department of Chemical Biology and Bioimaging, Faculty of Chemistry, PWr

From 2023 – Professor of PWr, Faculty of Medicine, PWr

Since 2020 – Professor of PWr, Faculty of Chemistry, PWr

Previous Employment

2022 - 2025, Deputy Head of the Department of Chemical Biology and Bioimaging, Faculty of Chemistry

2023 - 2024, Deputy Dean for general affairs, Faculty of Medicine, PWr

2018 - 2020, Adjunct, Faculty of Chemistry, PWr

2019 Visiting Professor, Harry Perkins Institute, Perth, Australia (Prof. Juliana Hamzah)

2016 - 2018, Post-doc, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellow, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, USA (Prof. Guy Salvesen)

2011 - 2015, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, PWr

2010 - 2014, PhD student, Department of Chemistry, PWR (Prof. Marcin Drąg)

Research Fellowships

2019 - 2019 Visiting Professor, University of Western Australia, Harry Perkins Institute, Perth, Australia, Prof. Julian Hamzah group, Program UWA Collaboration Award, (duration 3 months).

2016 - 2018 – Postdoctoral Fellowship, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA, Prof. Guy Salvesen group, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Global Fellowship (MSCA-GF)

International Collaboration 

1. Guy Salvesen, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Research Institute, San Diego, CA, USA – postdoctoral supervisor; collaboration in the field of caspase-dependent cell death mechanisms and the use of chemical probes for detecting proteolytic enzyme activity.
2. Boris Turk, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia – research on tumor initiation and progression mechanisms dependent on cysteine cathepsin activity.
3. Matthew Bogyo, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford University, San Francisco, CA, USA – design and synthesis of inhibitors and chemical probes for medically relevant proteases.
4. Vishva Dixit, Genentech Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA – design and synthesis of inhibitors and activity-based probes for pyroptotic caspases.
5. Peter Bozhkov, Uppsala BioCenter, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden – design and synthesis of small-molecule chemical tools for studying metacaspases.

Awards and Honors

2024 – Rector’s Award of Wrocław University of Science and Technology for scientific achievements (also awarded in 2022, 2020, 2018, and 2016)

2021 – Silver Cross of Merit for contributions to combating the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 – Distinction "Young Promoter of Poland" in the Science category

2021 – Award of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the best habilitation (Analytical Chemistry Committee)

2021 – Award of the Polish Chemical Society for the best habilitation (Chemistry)

2019 – University of Western Australia Joint Collaboration Award

2019 – Award for the Best Technology in Protease Research – FEBS Meeting, Portorož, Slovenia

2017 – Scholarship of the Minister of Science and Higher Education for scientific achievements

2014 – START Scholarship of the Foundation for Polish Science (also awarded in 2013)

2013 – Conference Grant, International Proteolysis Society (IPS), South Africa

Selected Publications

1. Ćwilichowska N, Świderska KW, Dobrzyń A, Drąg M, Poręba M. Diagnostic and therapeutic potential of protease inhibition. Molecular Aspects of Medicine, 88, 101144, (2022), doi: 10.1016/j.mam.2022.101144
2. Groborz K, Gonzalez-Ramirez M, Snipas SJ, Salvesen GS, Drąg M, Poręba M. Exploring the prime site in caspases as a novel chemical strategy for understanding the mechanisms of cell death: a proof of concept study on necroptosis in cancer cells Cell Death and Differentiation, 27(2), 451-465, , (2022), doi: 10.1038/s41418- 019-0364-z
3. Groborz K, Kalinka M, Grzymska J, Kołt S, Snipas SJ, Poręba M. Selective chemical reagents to investigate the role of caspase 6 in apoptosis in acute leukemia T cells. Chemical Science, 14, 2289-2302, (2023), doi: 10.1039/d2sc05827h
4. Poręba M, Groborz K, Rut W, Pore M, Snipas SJ, Vizovisek M, Turk B, Kuhn P, Drąg M, Salvesen GS Multiplexed probing of proteolytic enzymes using mass cytometry-compatible activity-based probes Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142, 39, 16704-16715, (2020), doi: 10.1021/jacs/0c06762
5. Poręba M, Groborz K, Navarro M, Snipas SJ, Drąg M, Salvesen GS Caspase selective reagents for diagnosis apoptotic mechanisms Cell Death and Differentiation, 26(2), 229-244, (2019), doi: 10.1038/s41418-018-0110-y
6. Poręba M, Rut W, Groborz K, Snipas SJ, Salvesen GS, Drąg M, Potent and selective caspase-2 inhibitor prevents MDM-2 cleavage in reversine-treated colon cancer cells Cell Death and Differentiation, 26(12), 2695-2709, (2019), doi: 10.1038/s41418-019-0329-2
7. Poręba M, Groborz K, Vizovisek M, Maruggi M, Turk D, Turk B, Powis G, Drąg M, Salvesen GS. Fluorescent probes towards selective cathepsin B detection and visualization in cancer cells and patient samples Chemical Science, 10(36):8461-8477, (2019), doi: 10.1039/c9sc00997c
8. Poręba M, Salvesen GS, Drąg M, Synthesis of a HyCoSuL peptide substrate library to dissect protease substrate specificity. Nature Protocols, 12(10), 2189-2214, (2017), doi: 10.1038/nprot.2017.091
9. Poręba M, Rut W, Vizovisek M, Groborz , Kasperkiewicz P, Finlay D, Vuori K, Turk D, Turk B, Salvesen GS, Drąg M. Selective imaging of cathepsin L in breast cancer by fluorescent activity-based probes. Chemical Science, 9 (8), 2113-2129, (2018), doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00434
10. Poręba M, Szalek A, Kasperkiewicz P, Rut W, Salvesen GS, Drąg M. Small molecule active site directed tools for studying human caspases. Chemical Reviews, 115 (22), 12546-12629, (2015), doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00434

Patent Applications

1. International patent application (WO2024146906A1) – Caspase-2 Inhibitor Compounds. Maria del Carmen Herrero Molina, Marc Cusachs Farraro, Marcin Drąg, Marcin Poręba, Matias Avila Zaragoza, Maite Garcia Fernandez-Barrena Status: International protection extended to the United States (Application No. 18/575,648)
2. International patent application (No. 62577271) – Stable Caspase Quenched Fluorescent Activity-Based Probes for Real-Time Imaging of Apoptosis In Vivo and for Studying Apoptosis and Cancer Chemotherapy Resistance, Galia Blum, Marcin Drąg, Marcin Poręba
3. European Patent Application No. 13 172 539.2 – Fluorogenic Substrates for ClpP, Stefan Sieber, Malte Gersch, Marcin Drąg, Marcin Poręba, Anna Dziedzic.
4. 451753 – Highly selective fluorogenic peptide substrates for human matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and their use Inventors: Marcin Drąg, Wioletta Rut, Marcin Poręba
5. 451754 – Highly selective fluorogenic peptide substrates for human matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and their use Inventors: Marcin Drąg, Wioletta Rut, Marcin Poręba
6. 451751 – Selective peptide sequence, peptide linker selectively cleaved by prolyl oligopeptidase, cytotoxic antibody-drug conjugate and their use Inventors: Marcin Poręba, Martyna Majchrzak
7. 451752 – Selective peptide sequence targeting fibroblast-activating protein (FAP) activity and a fluorogenic substrate and their uses Inventors: Marcin Poręba, Martyna Majchrzak

Marcin Poręba Group