"People in science are my people"

Research Assistant Artem Pavlovskyi grew up in Dnipro, Ukraine, and moved to Poland in 2018 to study biotechnology. During a master’s degree, an internship brought Artem to the University of Copenhagen and Birgitte Kornum’s sleep research lab, and a chance family connection then led to CBMR’s Schwartz Group. There, Artem worked out how a drug targeting the neurokinin 2 receptor (NK2R), a promising new route to weight loss, achieves its selectivity, which was recently published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology. Artem has since moved to the Gerhart-Hines Group to study the physiology of NK2R agonists and how they might be combined with GLP-1 drugs, and is preparing to start a PhD.

Where did your interest in science begin?

My father was a microbiologist. Being a scientist seemed so cool, like you’re appreciated and you live in a special world. He said it’s pretty hard for scientists in Ukraine to find a good position, so he kind of pushed me to go to Poland, because it’s close and it’s in the European Union. Then I just started, and I loved it.

What do you love about it?

I love the freedom we have. If you find something interesting, you can go after it. It also gives me a sense of meaning, because the new knowledge and scientific advances will stay on after me.

But it’s also just super nice to be part of the scientific community, because I feel like people in science are generally my people. That’s also what I love about CBMR: we have people from everywhere, but it’s still easy to communicate.

How did you end up at CBMR?

When I moved here for my internship, my father told me he knew someone in Denmark called Olga. She had been his teacher, lecturing human biochemistry back in Dnipro, and she happened to work for [CBMR Group Leader] Thue Schwartz. We met, she listened to what I wanted to do and what expertise I had, and she said, “Maybe you can talk to Thue.” I went to talk to Thue, we talked for about ten minutes, and he said, “Yeah, I’m hiring you.” So my father’s teacher worked for Thue, and then I did too.

What did you work on in the Schwartz Group?

I started with the NK2 receptor. It’s very well researched, but it has recently gained popularity as a target for weight loss. A drug had been described in Nature by our lab, but people hadn’t really thought about why it works and why it’s selective. So my work was on figuring out how that selectivity works.

And now you're in the Gerhart-Hines Group.

After moving to Zach’s group, I started working more on the physiology. Now we’re trying to combine our test molecule with GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide or GIPR agonists. GLP-1 works through insulin, so we’re trying to find an alternative route, which could also increase efficacy in type 1 diabetes. We believe NK2R agonists increase energy expenditure, so instead of people just eating less, it also would make them burn more calories, and we’re trying to figure out why. It also shouldn’t cause nausea.

The fun part is that it all started with structure, but now I’m a multi-tool. I also do histology, so it’s a bit of everything. Sometimes I feel it would be better to be a specialist in a narrow field, because it’s easier to find a job. But since I haven’t even started my PhD yet, I hope I have some time to explore.

Is your family still in Ukraine?

My mother and my grandparents live in Dnipro. I also have school friends there. Every time there are explosions, I check if they’re online. I could call them, but it’s strange to call someone three times a day. So I just check: okay, they’re online.

I also feel kind of guilty that I’m not with my people. But you have to choose, and it’s a very rough choice. I don’t want to be isolated from them, but I also understand that for science you need to be somewhere it’s developing. Half of my friends are in Ukraine and half are in Europe, so on Fridays and Saturdays we play computer games together. Honestly, I think now it’s not even about the game, it’s about having a reason to chat.

You also fight with swords?

What I do is called historical European martial arts. It’s medieval-style sword fighting, and we learn from medieval manuscripts. I even won silver at the Danish Ranking tournament. It’s super, super fun. It’s nice to have a completely different kind of activity, where you have to stay calm but can also really let your emotions out.

Where do you see yourself going?

It would be amazing to try leading a small lab. Basic biology is great, but it’s also nice to see that you’ve made something that works. Maybe that’s why I’m happy working in Thue’s group and Zach’s group. They’re very industry-oriented, but they still leave space for understanding how and why things work. That’s the most amazing thing, when you interact with biology directly.