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Michalina Wezyk, PhD
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Affiliation(s):
Mossakowski Medical Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences
Areas of Interest:
DNA damage response, Oxidative Stress and Neurodegeneration, cell cycle re-entry, ubiquitination proteasome system, transcriptomics, iPSC-derived neurons
Biography & Research:
I work on the molecular pathomechanisms of neuronal death underlying the role of oxidative stress and DNA damage response (DDR) with the major role of BRCA1. We use induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells reprogrammed from fibroblasts derived from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. iPS cells are induced into neuroepithelial-like stem cells (NES) and differentiated to neurons. In our collection we have more than 30 cell lines derived from familial early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (fEOAD) patients carrying mutations in PSEN1, encoding presenilin 1, the enzymatic core of gamma secretase complex processing beta-amyloid, major pathological hallmark of AD. Our DDR-based studies conducted using patients-derived neuronal model aim to provide a molecular link between beta-amyloid pathology and multifactorial stress occuring at presymptomatic phase or at the very early onset of AD.
I started my work as an assistant professor at Mossakowski Medical Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw in 2013 by launching the project from National Science Centre (Poland) "SONATA6” grant no. UMO-2013/09/D/NZ3/01348, which has been completed by 2017. In 2015 I was visiting postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Anna Falk Lab in Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm in Sweden where I acquired know-how in iPSC-derived neurons.
In 2012 I have obtained my PhD degree at the Nencki Institut of Experimental Biology of Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw in Poland.