Category: Research staff

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:

Group Leader

Research Areas:

Biomedical Imaging

Prof. dr hab. Maciej Wojtkowski (born 1975) is a physicist specializing in applied optics and medical and experimental physics. He started his scientific career at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. There he defended his master’s thesis, and then his doctoral thesis and postdoctoral thesis (habilitation). All degrees were awarded by the Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Computer Science. From 1998 to 1999 he was employed as a researcher at the University of Vienna, Austria, and from 2003 to 2005 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and Tufts New England Eye Center, Boston, USA.

Prof. Wojtkowski is the inventor of the first prototype clinical SdOCT device for eye imaging, built at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and tested at the New England Eye Center in Boston USA, and the second built at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and tested at the Jurasz Ophthalmology Clinic in Bydgoszcz.[1][2][3] This device is used for non-invasive, non-contact eye examinations in clinics all over the world to monitor the onset, progression, and therapy of eye diseases.

Since 2016, Prof. Wojtkowski has headed the Department of Physical Chemistry of Biological Systems, and since 2019 the International Centre for Translational Eye Research – both institutions are subunits of the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

He has authored more than 240 scientific publications, as well as several patents and patent applications. His work has been published in the following leading journals, among others: “Ophthalmology”, “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, “Nature Medicine”, “Optics Express”, “Journal of Biomedical Optics” and “Optics Letters”. He was the first to design a spectral optical coherence tomograph used for non-invasive, non-contact eye examinations. This invention has found a wide application and is used in clinics all over the world. In 2012 he was honored with the prestigious Foundation for Polish Science (FNP) Award in Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Engineering.

Bartłomiej Bałamut, MSc

University Degree:

Master of Science in Biotechnology, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland

Position at ICTER:

PhD Student

Research Areas:

Molecular Biology and Genetics

PhD student, his main responsibility is research with the use of in vitro electrophysiological recordings. He also performs experiments in the area of molecular biology and genetics.

Magdalena Banach-Orłowska, PhD

University Degree:

PhD, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics (PAS)

Position at ICTER:

Group Coordinator & Lab Manager

Research Areas:

Intracellular Signaling and Regulation of Gene Expression in Cancer Cells

Dr. Magdalena Banach-Orłowska graduated from Biotechnology at the University of Warsaw. She obtained a PhD degree in Biochemistry at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics (awarded with the Prime Minister award for a PhD thesis). She continued her scientific work as a postdoctoral fellow and senior researcher at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, and at the Medical University of Warsaw.

She led two scientific grants as a PI, co-promoted one PhD and published thirteen papers including twelve original (Scopus preview – Banach-Orłowska, Magdalena – Author details – Scopus). Her scientific interests focus mostly on intracellular signaling and regulation of gene expression in cancer cells.

Mehdi Borjkhani, PhD

University Degree:

PhD, University of Teheran in Iran,  Tehran Polytechnic in Iran

Position at ICTER:

Post-doc

Research Areas:

Neuronal Nets

Postdoctoral fellow, his research activity includes modeling the neuronal nets created from a multitude of different neuronal populations and data analysis.

Dawid Borycki, PhD

University Degree:

PhD, Nicolaus Copernicus University

Position at ICTER:

Senior Researcher

Research Areas:

Statistical and diffuse optics, software engineering, biomedical engineering

Dawid Borycki, D.Sc., Ph.D. specializes in biomedical optics, statistical optics, and software engineering. Dawid graduated with honors from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland (MSc. in 2007, Ph.D. 2011). In 2022 he received habilitation degree (D.Sc.) from the Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering Polish Academy of Sciences. 

He co-authored more than 25 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals such as Optica, Scientific Reports, Biomedical Express, Optics Express, and Optics Letters. He also holds two patents issued by the US patent office. In addition, he published 11 books and over 60 articles on programming, cloud technologies, and machine learning.  

Dawid has more than 14 years of experience in research and development. He specializes in the field of biomedical engineering, especially in biomedical imaging. He completed scientific projects in various scientific institutions (Nicolaus Copernicus University, University of California Davis, Polish Academy of Sciences). In addition, he served as a consultant in various commercial companies: Canon, Optopol Technology, Optina Diagnostics. 

His most outstanding scientific achievement is the creation of novel optical methods which use light interferometry. The first one, interferometric near-infrared spectroscopy (iNIRS), is for non-invasive brain sensing. The second one, spatiotemporal optical coherence tomography (STOC-T), is for ultra-fast human retinal imaging at cellular resolution.  

At ICTER, Dawid developed computational algorithms for STOC-T

Chinjusha, MSc

University Degree:

Msc, Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore, India

Position at ICTER:

PhD Student

Research Areas:

Data Analysis Strategies of Single-Cell Genomics Data

E-mail: chinjusha@ichf.edu.pl
Researcher's ORCID Id: 0000-0001-6789-3948

Chinjusha obtained her Bachelor of Engineering in Biotechnology in 2016 at the P A College of Engineering affiliated under Visvesvaraya Technological University, Mangalore, India and a Master of Science degree in 2019 at the Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology, Bangalore, India.

After her master studies Chinjusha worked on several projects focused on: understanding the vast diversity of neuroblasts and accomplishing better management of malaria in India, using comparative genomics (in collaboration with Tata Institute for Genetics and Society).

The most important achievements of Chinjusha so far include: the scientific article in the  Journal Frontiers in Genetics, Computational Genomics (doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.565626) and the award for the Best Outgoing Student from the department of Biotechnology.

Chinjusha’s role at the CGG is to design and execute data analysis strategies of single-cell genomics data to explore eye disease mechanisms.

Andrea Curatolo, PhD

University Degree:

PhD, The University of Western Australia

Position at ICTER:

Group Leader

Research Areas:

Biomedical Imaging

Andrea Curatolo is an expert in biomedical imaging, especially in optical coherence tomography (OCT) and derived techniques to enhance diagnostic accuracy and guide surgery, aimed at improved health outcomes, mainly in ophthalmology and oncology. Dr Curatolo obtained a PhD in biophotonics at The University of Western Australia.

He is an author of more than 30 publications in Q1 peer-reviewed international journals, including three book chapters. He is also involved in the clinical translation and commercialization of biophotonics technologies; he has authored several patent applications, and he is engaged in collaborations with MedTech startups.

Michał Dąbrowski, PhD

University Degree:

University Degree: PhD thesis in quantum optics, graduated in 2019 (Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, with honours)

Position at ICTER:

post-doc

Research Areas:

quantum optics, AMO physics, light scattering, optical imaging, wavefront shaping techniques

During my PhD studies I participated in experiments on storage of quantum states inside atomic medium (so-called quantum memory). I have shown that it is possible to store and retrieve on-demand multiple photons as well as change the properties of resulting entangled state, using the spatial light modulator (SLM). The main motivation has been the creation of single-photon processor able to perform specific tasks for more complicated quantum circuits. Based on my previous experience I have started the postdoctoral fellow in the field of quantum optics with scattering media, having in the back of my head the applications for biological imaging. In my research project I tried to build a quantum simulator based on wavefront shaping + scattering processes in complex media. The fascinating world of light scattering brings me to the second postdoctoral position in the current group where I realized the project about two-photon fluorescence of the human eye to avoid scattering and absorption in the eye coming from visible-light excitation which paves the way for better understanding of a vision process.