Edward Borowski and Molecular Aspects of Chemotherapy

a 3 rd-year student, he was in 1948 appointed a Research Assistant at the Department of Organic Chemistry and this date marks the onset of his academic career. His research at that time was focused on discovery of novel antibiotic substances by random screening of soil samples. These studies resulted in discovery of tetaine, the first ever antibiotic isolated in Poland and in getting PhD for this achievement in 1954. In 1957 Edward Borowski went to the USA where he got a position of a Postdoctoral Fellow at the laboratory of the Nobel Prize winner, Professor Selman A. Waxman. In Prof. Borowski's opinion the experience gained at Waxman's lab was of a great importance for his further career. Coming back to the Gdañsk University of Technology in 1960, E. Borowski was given a position of a Head of the Department of Biochemistry (converted later into Department of Pharmaceutical Technology & Biochemistry), and started building his research team. Small at the very beginning, it rapidly expanded and quickly became a large group combining scientists who represented different specializations: organic chemists, biochemists, biophysicists and microbiologists. In the eighties the group was joined by quantum chemists who had been using modern computational technologies for drug design. All these researchers combined their efforts towards studies on molecular basis for the rational design of potential chemotherapeutics for the control of eukaryotic systems, especially antifungal and anticancer agents. Such a multidisciplinary approach was entirely pioneering at that time. Professor Borowski and his Molecular Chemotherapy Group quickly became a leading Polish center of studies on molecular aspects of chemotherapy, well known and appreciated by the world scientific community in this field. In the meantime, Professor Borowski was nominated for several years a Director of the Institute of Organic and Food Chemistry and Technology at his mother faculty. As a matter of fact, he did not enjoy those administrative duties, as they had taken too much time that could be much better spent on doing research. The scientific record of Professor Borowski is very impressive. It comprises nearly 800 scientific publications, including 340 peer-reviewed articles in journals and books, 380 conference communications and 70 patents. His works were cited by other authors nearly 1100 times in the period 1981–2000. Such a citation record places Prof. Borowski among the most cited Polish scientists. Detailed enumeration of all achievements of Professor Borowski and his research group is undoubtedly beyond the …