Summary
I have joined Imperial College London as a Culinary Education Designer in 2019 to work on the Chemical Kitchen project. Prior to that, I have completed a PhD degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Groningen, Netherlands. I used a systems biology approach to investigate Escherichia coli persister cells, which are in a special metabolic state that makes them tolerant to antibiotics.
After completing my PhD, I have decided to take a detour to cook, and completed the Grand Diplome course at Le Cordon Bleu London. Subsequently, I worked in fine-dining, Michelin-starred restaurants and design studios in London as a chef. My current role as a Culinary Education Designer involves working at the Imperial College London on the Chemical Kitchen project, which was created in collaboration with Kitchen Theory. This involves designing and running courses for students, in which they learn STEMM-related skills and approaches through a non-threatening parallel of cooking.
Since we started in 2019, the project has expanded beyond its initial aims. We run the course for students of Chemistry and Medical Biosciences, and for Neuroscience students at the Technical University of Munich. We have also developed and ran a Medical Kitchen, in which we had students focus on the process of learning clinical skills and communication - again, through a non-threatening parallel of cooking.
My current work focusses on running and evaluating these courses, on developing a new iExplore course focussing on the concepts of professional agency and performance, developing courses in collaboration with other parts of the College, and on exploring further avenues in teaching and outreach which will utilize our innovative transdisciplinary approach.
Publications
Journals
Van den Bergh B, Schramke H, Michiels JE, et al., 2022, Mutations in respiratory complex I promote antibiotic persistence through alterations in intracellular acidity and protein synthesis., Nature Communications, Vol:13, ISSN:2041-1723, Pages:1-17
Radzikowski J, Delmas L, Spivey A, et al., 2021, The Chemical Kitchen: Towards Remote Delivery of an Interdisciplinary Practical Course, Journal of Chemical Education, ISSN:0021-9584
Radzikowski JL, Schramke H, Heinemann M, 2017, Bacterial persistence from a system-level perspective, Current Opinion in Biotechnology, Vol:46, ISSN:0958-1669, Pages:98-105
Radzikowski JL, Vedelaar S, Siegel D, et al., 2016, Bacterial persistence is an active sigma(S) stress response to metabolic flux limitation, Molecular Systems Biology, Vol:12, ISSN:1744-4292, Pages:1-18