Category: Postdoctoral Fellows & Associates

Agata Łabędź, PhD

University Degree:

Biotechnology from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences

Translational and Molecular Medicine at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan

Position at ICTER:

Postdoctoral Researcher

Research Areas:

Molecular Biology, Genetics, Virology

E-mail: agata.labedz@ichf.edu.pl
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0003-2492-2643
Description

Agata Labedz, PhD graduated in Biotechnology from the Warsaw University of Life Sciences in 2018. During her studies, she worked mainly on projects related to anticancer therapies. In 2023, she obtained her PhD in Translational and Molecular Medicine at the University of Milano-Bicocca in Milan. Her doctoral research focused on hematology and gene therapies for diseases such as anemia and thalassemia, carried out within the European Marie Curie project Age-related changes in hematopoiesis.

Rafał Płatek, PhD

Position at ICTER:

Postdoctoral Researcher

Description

Dr. Rafał Płatek has experience in pro-regenerative research on injuries of the central and peripheral nervous systems in rodent models of spinal cord and sciatic nerve lesions, as well as in an ear-pinna injury model. In these models, he tested experimental therapies based on overexpression of the L1CAM protein using AAV vectors, the use of hydrogels and Alzet pumps as carriers of peptides with pro-regenerative potential, and therapies involving epigenetically active compounds. He also conducted research on impaired neurogenesis using cyclin D2 knockout mice. He graduated in biology (specializing in molecular biology) from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn in 2006. From 2007 to 2014, he worked at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, in the Department of Reinnervation Processes, where he completed his doctorate in 2014. Between 2015 and 2018, Dr. Płatek held a postdoctoral fellowship in the team of Prof. Leszek Kaczmarek at IBD. From 2020 to 2025, he was a member of Prof. Paweł Sachadyn’s team in the Regenerative Biotechnology Laboratory at the Faculty of Chemistry, Gdańsk University of Technology. During his doctoral studies and afterward, he completed short research visits abroad in Göttingen (2009) and Heidelberg (2019) in Germany and participated in the Wings for Life workshops in Hattingen, Germany (2016).

Anna Grabowska, PhD

University Degree:

Msc, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn
University of Zurich

Position at ICTER:

Postdoctoral Researcher

Research Areas:

proteins involved in the phototransduction pathway and visual cycle, transgenic animal models for biomedical and biotechnology research

E-mail: anna.grabowska@ichf.edu.pl
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0002-2749-5897

Anna specializes in molecular biology and genetics. Anna graduated from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (MSc. in 2006, PhD. in 2013). She developed molecular biology and cell culture expertise at foreign staying at the University of Zurich. Her recent scientific interests were connected with pathological processes from the perspective of regenerative medicine. Now she will focus on proteins involved in the phototransduction pathway of the visual cycle.

Anna Zawada, PhD Eng.

Position at ICTER:

Postdoctoral Researcher

Research Areas:

molecular biology, cell biology, genetic engineering, biochemistry

Anna graduated as a Master of Science in Engineering in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from Gdansk University of Technology, where she was identifying metabolic products of anti-cancer active compounds synthesized in the department. Then, in the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry PAS in Poznań, she focused on elucidating the structure of a fragment of an avian influenza virus genome, which enabled her to gain practical experience in chemical, biochemical and molecular biology methodologies in the field of nucleic acid analysis. When she moved to Warsaw, she started her PhD studies in the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics PAS, on maintaining genome stability using yeast as a model organism. Her first topic on a specific mutation in cancer eventually led her to a project related to mechanisms of repetitive DNA replication upon defective replisome.

During her later postdoctoral fellow in the International Institute of the Molecular Mechanisms and Machines PAS she worked on the maintenance of cellular proteostasis by engaging a immuno-specific type of proteasome, which could be an alternative molecular target for inhibitors in mitochondrial diseases. In her second project there she used metabolic labeling and click chemistry approach to track translation upon mitochondrial stress. So far, she has been a co-author of 2 scientific papers in high-impact journals.

In the Computational Genomics Group led by Marcin Tabaka at ICTER she is involved in the realization of the project ‘Benchmarking Human Tissue Culture Systems that Mimic the Tumor Microenvironment’ funded by OPUS 21 grant.

Anna is crazy about crocheting, a passionate lavender grower and a self-taught guitar player.

Hubert Doleżyczek, PhD

University Degree:

PhD diploma, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS; MSc degree in biology, Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland

Position at ICTER:

Postdoctoral Researcher

Research Areas:

In vivo experiments, brain imaging with Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT),vascular microsurgery in experimental transplantology, electron microscopy techniques, neuronal cell cultures, histological techniques

Hubert began his research career in 2008 at the Mossakowski Medical Research Center in Warsaw, where he acquired skills in experimental microsurgery. From 2011, he continued his research at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, where he defended his doctoral dissertation in 2022. During his doctoral studies, he focused on imaging the vascular network and brain tissue changes in mouse models of ischemic stroke and glioblastoma using optical coherence tomography. In 2024, he joined the Ophthalmic Biology Group at ICTER as a Postdoctoral Researcher, where he participates in the development of new methods for in vivo mouse brain imaging and experimental treatments for eye diseases on rodent models.

Joanna Bem, PhD

University Degree:

PhD in Biology degree from the University of Warsaw

Position at ICTER:

Postdoctoral Researcher

Research Areas:

epigenetics, transcriptional regulation and cellular differentiation

E-mail: jbem@ichf.edu.pl
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0001-8532-9363

Postdoctoral fellow at the Computational Genomics Group (CGG) led by Dr. Marcin Tabaka, and coordinated by Dr. Lidia Wolińska-Nizioł. Since July 2024, Joanna is involved in the Weave-UNISONO bilateral research project funded by the NCN (National Science Centre) in cooperation with the SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation). In a joint project with Prof. Alfred Zippelius and Dr. Karen Dixon (Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel) she will employ multimodal single cell mapping to elucidate the role that immune system plays in cancer.

Joanna graduated from the University of Warsaw, Faculty of Biology in 2010. There, her fascination with epigenetics and development has started. She obtained her PhD degree at the University of Warsaw in 2018, she was involved in a project investigating the role of miRNAs in stem cells’ differentiation. During a post-doc fellowship at the Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw she focused specifically on transcriptional regulation, and 3D chromatin structure in terminal neuronal differentiation. Later she joined the International Institute of Molecular Mechanisms and Machines, where she was engaged in research on the transcriptional memory. Dr. Joanna Bem is an author or co-author of 6 original papers, 2 reviews publications and also contributed to 2 patents. During her scientific career she led one scientific project founded by NCN and several intramural-microgrants.

During free time, Joanna enjoys gardening and creating ceramic pottery.

Project: Weave-Unisono 2023/05/Y/NZ6/00083.

Kamil Krawczyński, PhD

University Degree:

Master’s degree from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, PhD degree at the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research PAS (2013)

Position at ICTER:

Research Specialist

Research Areas:

non-coding RNA, neuro-oncology, epigenetics

E-mail: kkrawczynski@ichf.edu.pl
Scopus Profile: 37037711800
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0001-5336-7525

During his Master’s studies, Kamil Krawczyński completed a 6 months Erasmus Program scholarship at the University of Trieste, Italy. After the doctoral studies, he continued his research career as postdoctoral fellow at the Magee-Womens Research Institute, Pittsburgh, USA. Later he returned to Poland and worked at Mossakowski Medical Research Institute PAS in Warsaw. His main research focus is non-coding RNA, including microRNA and using diverse molecular biology techniques he has investigated their role in the epigenetic and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression.

He is a co-author of 14 scientific papers. During his scientific career he led 1 scientific project, he was also awarded by the Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education Scholarship for outstanding young scientists.

In August 2024, Dr. Krawczyński joined the Computational Genomics Group at ICTER as a research specialist, where he is involved in the realization of the SONATA BIS 12 project aimed at developing methods for multimodal profiling at single cell resolution.

The photo of Dr. Kamil Krawczyński was taken by Dr. Karol Karnowski.

Aleksandra Kornacka-Stackonis, PhD

University Degree:

PhD degree in Biology (2021), Witold Stefanski Institute of Parasitology, Polish Academy of Sciences.

Position at ICTER:

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Kornacka-Stackonis has worked at the Institute of Parasitology Polish Academy of Sciences for most of her career. Her doctoral research mainly focused on detecting parasites in wildlife using both immunological and molecular methods. She has held two projects for young scientists funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. She has been a member of the Polish Parasitological Association since 2013 and authored or co-authored 19 articles from the JCR list, as well as many abstracts.

Since April 2024, she is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Computational Genomics group as part of the Sonata bis 12 grant, working on next-generation sequencing (NGS) workflow for single-cell analysis. She is passionate about baking and running.