Category: Leadership and management

Bartosz L. Sikorski, MD, PhD

University Degree:

MD, PhD, Nicolaus Copernicus University

Position at ICTER:

Board Representative for Medical Research

Research Areas:

Optical diagnostic imaging, ocular diseases, artificial intelligence in medical imaging

E-mail: sikorski@doctors.org.uk
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0001-5357-9560

Bartosz L. Sikorski is a clinician scientist and surgeon. He graduated from Medicine at Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) and also studied at Imperial College London, University of Oxford and Harvard University. He trained in Ophthalmology and Ophthalmic Surgery at the Department of Ophthalmology, NCU and obtained the title of the Fellow of the European Board of Ophthalmology in Paris, France.

He was a member of the Optical Bioimaging Group, led by Prof. Wojtkowski at NCU, which developed and constructed the world’s first spectral domain OCT (SOCT) tomograph. Between 2004 and 2005, he performed nearly 3,000 examinations on a SOCT clinical prototype at the Department of Ophthalmology, NCU validating the technology and then participated in its first worldwide commercialization.

In 2012, together with Prof. Wojtkowski, he presented the first clinical results of OCT angiography application at the American Academy of Ophthalmology. In 2017, he introduced Split-Window OCT Biometry. And in 2023, he showed the first preliminary clinical results of OCT tonometry.

Over the past several years, he has been the Principal Investigator and National Coordinator for a number of clinical trials, and was involved in the design of some of them. He is the co-author of the worldwide patent “Methods of improving retina-associated disease outcome using ccr3-inhibitors” and the Atlas of AMD Diagnosis and Treatment. He is also the Medical Research Director of the AI development program in eye disease detection at the Optopol Technology Research and Development Centre in Poznan and the Head of the Genetic Engineering Unit at the Oculomedica Research and Development Centre in Bydgoszcz.

He has performed more than 10,000 anterior and posterior segment intraocular surgeries. He also gained additional experience in vitreoretinal surgery at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. His special surgical interest is the management of complex eye trauma.

His scientific achievements include several dozen papers, more than 60 oral presentations at international conferences, and teaching nearly 30 courses on the diagnosis and treatment of retinal diseases around the world. He received the Prime Minister’s Award for a PhD thesis on a new method of photoreceptor imaging. Among the honours awarded to Dr. Sikorski, a two-time scholarship from the Lanckoronski Foundation holds a special place.

Representative for Virtual Clinics

Description

Vacancy to be filled soon

Prof. Dr. hab. Maciej Wojtkowski

University Degree:

Professor of Physics (2003), habilitation in Physics (2010) at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland

Position at ICTER:

ICTER Chair and POB Group Leader

Research Areas:

Biomedical Imaging

Prof. Maciej Wojtkowski, born in 1975, is a physicist with a distinguished career in applied optics, medical physics, and experimental physics. He began his scientific journey at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, where he earned his MSc, PhD, and Habilitation degrees in Physics. His early research included international appointments as a researcher at the University of Vienna and later at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Tufts New England Eye Center in Boston, USA.

Prof. Wojtkowski is a pioneer of SdOCT

Prof. Wojtkowski is one of the pioneers in the development of the spectral domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SdOCT), also known as the Fourier domain OCT method. He is a key inventor of the first prototype clinical SdOCT device for eye imaging, which revolutionized the non-invasive diagnosis of eye diseases. This device was developed at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland, becoming a standard tool in ophthalmology clinics worldwide.

Prof. Wojtkowski, together with Prof. Rainer Leitgeb and Prof. Johannes De Boer, has played a leading role in the development of SdOCT. His main achievements are related to the translation of the method into ophthalmic practice. In 2000, Prof. Wojtkowski was the first in the world to build a laboratory system for SdOCT eye imaging at Nicolaus Copernicus University (NCU) in Toruń. Together with Prof. Leitgeb, they demonstrated the first retinal imaging results in 2002, published in the Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO). The method described in this publication became the foundation for OCT device design.

In 2003, Prof. Wojtkowski achieved a major breakthrough by experimentally demonstrating SdOCT retinal imaging with an acquisition time of 64 microseconds (~15kHz), providing the world’s first experimental evidence that SdOCT enables safe in vivo retinal imaging more than 50 times faster than standard time-domain OCT, with comparable sensitivity and sample illumination. With this work, he opened up previously unattainable possibilities for 3-D imaging of the eye. 

The same year, he conducted pioneering experiments demonstrating high-resolution 3-micron imaging of the retina and cornea using supercontinuum light generated in a photonic optical fiber, with the first examples of 3-D imaging published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology in 2004 after rejection in Nature Medicine in 2003.

During his time at MIT (2003-2005), Prof. Wojtkowski further advanced OCT by demonstrating high-quality 3-D imaging of the human retina and cornea, introducing retinal morphometric analysis based on a raster measurement protocol, which has since become the gold standard in ophthalmic diagnostics and is used in all current clinical devices. His team at NCU also introduced the use of SdOCT for imaging corneal disorders. Prof. Wojtkowski developed the first three clinical SdOCT devices for ophthalmic imaging, which were tested at Tufts New England Eye Center, Boston USA,

Jurasz Hospital in Bydgoszcz, Poland and UPMC in Pittsburgh, USA enabling clinical validation and subsequent commercialization of SdOCT method. In addition, Prof. Wojtkowski and his team at NCU made significant contributions to OCT angiography, Doppler imaging, speckle contrast reduction, and quantitative methods for SdOCT data analysis.

In 2019, his team at International Centre for Translational Eye Research (ICTER) Warsaw, Poland introduced the spatio-temporal OCT method, extending OCT’s functionality to include flicker optoretinography and high-resolution imaging of the chorio-retinal complex.

Advancing Two-photon Vision and Two-photon Imaging

Prof. Wojtkowski also made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of two-photon vision. In 2014, he led a study that illuminated the phenomenon of two-photon vision, proving the role of two-photon absorption in the isomerization of retinal pigments that cause visual sensations. In 2021, he and his colleagues achieved another milestone by presenting the first-ever images of the human retina measured with two-photon excited fluorescence in vivo.

Prof. Wojtkowski’s scientific leadership

Since 2016, Prof. Wojtkowski has headed the Department of Physical Chemistry of Biological Systems at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS). In 2019, he co-founded the International Center for Translational Eye Research (ICTER), a part of IPC PAS, furthering his vision of integrating physics and biomedical research to advance eye health.

ICTER focuses on cutting-edge translational research in vision science, combining fundamental science with clinical applications. Under Prof. Wojtkowski’s leadership, ICTER has achieved significant milestones, including winning the prestigious Horizon Europe Teaming for Excellence grant in 2024. It is also a two-time recipient of the International Research Agendas Programme (IRAP) grant from the Foundation for Polish Science, solidifying ICTER’s role as a global leader in ophthalmological research and innovation.

Papers, patents and commercialization

Prof. Wojtkowski has more than 240 scientific publications and numerous patents to his credit, and his work is regularly published in leading journals. His research has earned him over 8,000 citations and widespread recognition, including fellowships in prestigious societies such as the Optical Society of America. In addition to his academic and research achievements, Prof. Wojtkowski’s entrepreneurial spirit is reflected in his role as the founder and former CEO of the biomedical spin-out company AM2M, and currently the co-founder of the In Cell Vu. His contributions to science, from pioneering OCT technology to his leadership at ICTER, continue to shape the future of medical imaging and translational research.

Prof. Christophe Gorecki

University Degree:

PhD in Optics at the University of Besançon

Position at ICTER:

Deputy Chair for Scientific Affairs

Description

Former Director of Scientific Research CNRS in Besançon, France.
Technological expertise: novel MOEMS architectures for sensing with the development of miniature parallel on-chip microscopes, experience in transferring IP to industrial companies.
Served as National Secretary of the French Society of Optics (SFO).

Anna Pawlus, MBA

University Degree:

MBA from Porto Business School, Portugal

Position at ICTER:

Managing Director

Description

Anna Pawlus has been associated with the optics and photonics community since 2016, starting her adventure as a lab manager and coordinator of a research group at the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences. She holds M.Sc. degree from the Wrocław University of Science and Technology and completed the International MBA programme at Porto Business School. She gained professional experience in the International Cooperation Office at the U.Porto, IBM Global Delivery Centre in Wroclaw, and Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação, mainly in the areas of coordination and management of international projects.

In 2011, she participated in a project organized by the US non-profit organisation TechnoServe in Africa (Mozambique), working on social entrepreneurship.

Anna volunteers for campaigns supporting gender equality & promotion of multiculturalism. She is also a change advocate in improving communication channels for scientific institutions.

Andrzej Foik, PhD hab.

University Degree:

Habilitation degree in biological sciences, the Nencki Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.

Position at ICTER:

Group Leader

Research Areas:

Molecular and Cell Biology, Genetics, In Vivo and In Vitro Electrophysiology (single-unit and field potential recordings), Biotechnology (Protein Purification, Protein Design, and Expression, Microbiology, Vector Design), Data Analysis

E-mail: afoik@ichf.edu.pl
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0003-1110-9223

Andrzej Foik, PhD hab., is experienced in molecular and cell biology, genetics, in vivo and in vitro electrophysiology at the network and single-cell levels, data analysis, and computer programming. His scientific pathway began at the Department of Protein Biosynthesis of the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, where he defended his master thesis. He received further scientific training at the Department of Molecular Biology in the Centre of Oncology – Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute.

He attained a PhD degree in neurophysiology at the Laboratory of Neurobiology of Vision at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Science in Warsaw. Prior to taking the lead of the Ophthalmic Biology Group, he pursued scientific studies as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology of the University of California, Irvine, USA (2015 – 2020). In June 2024 Dr. Foik has been awarded his habilitation degree in biological sciences, by the Nencki Institute’s Scientific Council.

Karol Karnowski, PhD

University Degree:

PhD in Biophysics, Nicolaus Copernicus University

Position at ICTER:

Acting IDoc Leader, Senior Researcher

Research Areas:

Biomedical Applications of Photonics

“I am a seasoned researcher with over 15 years of experience in optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging techniques. My scientific interests lie in the biomedical applications of imaging technologies, particularly in enhancing contrast by exploring the dynamic, mechanical, and polarization properties of tissues. Additionally, I am passionate about the miniaturization of imaging systems and the development of cost-effective solutions.

Throughout my career, I have successfully managed numerous research projects and secured various grants, demonstrating my ability to lead and execute. I have also been instrumental in developing prototype clinical devices, bridging the gap between research and practical medical applications.

Mentorship is a key aspect of my professional life. I take great pride in guiding and supporting younger colleagues, having supervised two PhD candidates and over ten master’s students to date. This role allows me to contribute to the growth of emerging scientists.

Currently, I serve as the Acting PI of the IDoc Group at ICTER, where I lead a team of specialists in advanced biomedical imaging techniques and robotics. Additionally, I actively support the centre’s public relations efforts, promoting our research achievements and enhancing our scientific community’s visibility”.

Scientific Director

Description

Recruitment offer: Scientific Director of ICTER (MCBO-2_14/2024) – ICTER.