NEWS

Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology with the Horizon Europe grant!

Prof. Bozena Kaminska and Dr Katarzyna Leszczynska from Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology will coordinate the HORIZON-MISS-2023-CANCER-01 grant: HIT-GLIO - Targeting tumour-host interactions in paediatric malignant gliomas to reinvigorate immunity and improve radio- and immunotherapy efficacy. The international and multidisciplinary consortium, composed of 10 partners from: Poland, France, Germany Netherland, UK, Italy and Canada, receives 11,14 mln Euro to find new ways of treating paediatric high-grade gliomas, malignant, deadly tumours developing in infants and children. The researchers using state-of-the art technologies and novel animal models will dissect tumour-host interactions to reveal novel targets allowing to find new ways to eradicate mutated tumour cells, improve efficacy of radiotherapy, and reinvigorate anti-tumour immunity. Neurodevelopmental alterations and psychological consequences of disease will be assessed and foster psychological approaches developed to increase quality-of-life of patients and caregivers. The expected outcomes of HIT-GLIO would ultimately pave the way for new clinical trials to improve the way these deadly tumours are treated.

Congratulations! 

Dr. Mitrajit Ghosh - Laureate of the 2023 Molecular Oncology Writing Competition!

As part of World Cancer Day (4th Feb), the journal of Molecular Oncology launched a writing competition entitled “Uniting disciplines to tackle cancer”.
Among the winners was Dr. Mitrajit Ghosh from our Group for the submission entitled “Taming brain tumour with spatially resolved transcriptomics” (link to article). 

Congratulations!   

Prof. Bozena Kaminska Laureate of the Prime Minister’s Award!

The award was given in the category: Achievement in the field of scientific activity, for the discovery of new genomic and epigenetic alterations in malignant gliomas, changes in their microenvironment, and new methods of enhancing the effect of immunotherapy. 

Two awards for publication "Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals functional heterogeneity of glioma-associated brain macrophages” by Natalia Ochocka, Pawel Segit, Kacper Adam Walentynowicz, Kamil Wojnicki, Salwador Cyranowski, Julian Swatler, Jakub Mieczkowski & Bozena Kaminska, Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 19;12(1):1151

• The JK. Parnas Award from Polish Biochemical Society as the best experimental paper in 2021 in the field of biochemistry/experimental biology, performed fully in the Polish laboratory. 

• The Konorski Award was given by the Committee of Neurobiology and Polish Neuroscience Society as the best experimental paper in the field of neuroscience published in 2021.

Announcement from POLONEZ BIS Coordination Team:

Dear Principal Investigators of NCN projects,

do you know a talented scientist interested in moving to Poland? Are you looking for a way to boost  the capacity of your research team? The POLONEZ BIS 2 call might be of interest to you!

POLONEZ BIS is not an ordinary grant but a comprehensive programme that integrates research, short-term secondments in non-academic institutions and soft skill training. Under POLONEZ BIS programme National Science Centre recruits researchers from abroad who will move to Poland for 24 months in order to carry out their basic research projects.

POLONEZ BIS is addressed to PhD holders or researchers with at least 4 years of full-time research experience, who have not lived or been employed in  Poland for at least 2 out of 3 years before the call announcement. They will be free to choose the topics and disciplines of the research proposals which they will submit jointly with the Polish host institutions in an academic or non-academic sector (their future employers). Researchers at risk are encouraged to apply.

The programme guarantees successful fellows attractive employment conditions – a monthly allowance of € 4,465 gross and an additional research grant up to € 100,000 for the implementation of a 2-year project.

With the ongoing second POLONEZ BIS call, we would like to kindly ask you to spread the word about the programme. The deadline for submitting proposals is 15 June 2022 (4:00 p.m. CEST).

To keep updated, visit the official website of the programme, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us in social media.

Full text of the POLONEZ BIS call 2 announcement

Registration for a Webinar for Applicants (April 5, 2:00 p.m. CEST).

POLS – call for research projects led by incoming researchers in Polish research organisations

The National Science Centre is currently conducting the POLS call for research projects to be carried out by incoming researchers in Polish research institutions or enterprises. Proposals may be submitted by researchers holding at least a PhD degree who have not resided, worked or studied in Poland or managed a research project carried out in Poland for 2 years prior to the call deadline. The objective of the call is to support researcher mobility and the arrival of renowned and promising scientists will serve to boost the research potential of Polish research entities.

The POLS call is funded from the Norway Grants and the budget of the call equals over €7 million. The requested amount of funding for the entire duration of the project must fall between €100,000 and €200,000. Grants may be designated to fund the salary for the research team, depreciation or purchase of research equipment, materials and services, costs of business trips and conferences as well as other project-related costs. The amount of indirect costs is 25% of the funds applied for to complete the project, including the value of research equipment purchased but excluding the sub-contracting costs.

The detailed information on the call can be found at:

ncn.gov.pl/ogloszenia/konkursy/pols?language=en

The call is open to researchers from all research domains. Proposals must be submitted electronically to the OSF system (osf.opi.org.pl/app/) by 16 June 2020, 4 p.m.

The Centre is organising an info chat during which we will be answering questions concerning the POLS call.

The chat will take place on 28 May 2020 at 12.00 (CEST) and will last for one hour.

The link to the chat will be available in advance through the NCN web site at:

ncn.gov.pl/eeanorwaygrants/news?language=en

Brain Tumor Meeting 2019 - Berlin

Recently, we attanded the Brain Tumor Meeting held in Berlin at The Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine. The group had the opportunity to present oral and poster presentations. This gave us opportunity to dissaminate and showcase our research.

Following projects were presented at the meeting:

Bożena Kamińska - 'Development of synthetic peptides targeting glioma-microglia interaction as a new therapeutics.'

Iwona Ciechomska - 'EGFR/FOXO3A/BIM signalling pathway determines chemosensitivity of BMP4-differentiated glioma stem-like cells to temozolomide.'

Aleksandra Ellert-Miklaszewska - 'Expression and function of NFAT (Nuclear Factor of Activated T cells) trancription factors in human gliomas.'

Agnieszka Kaczmarczyk - 'Noverl mutations in the RECQL4 gene contribute to the glioma pathogenesis.'

Sylwia K Król - 'Effects of helicase RECQL4 depletion of human glioma biology and chemosensitivity.'

Maria Pasierbińska - 'Blocking Osteopontin signalling inhibits glioma invasivness ad reduces tumor growth of intracranial human glioma in Nude mice.'

Katarzyna Poleszak - 'The role of tumor-derived Granulocyte Macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF/CSF2) in regulation of microglia-dependent invasion in gliomas.'

Paweł Segit - 'Single-cell RNA-seq of glioma associated microglia and macrophages reveals cell type-specific and sex-specific differences.'

Kacper A Walentynowicz - 'Dissecting tumor associated microglia/macrophages responses in preclinical model of glioblastoma.'

Kamil Wojnicki - 'New insights into the role of BLM helicase in malignant gliomas.'

"Compositions and methods for treating glioma" US and Japan patent

Prof Kaminska has received a patent for innovative method employing synthetic peptides that block crosstalk between tumor cells and microenvironment for brain tumor therapy. Tumor cells produce various factors that influence surrounding non-tumor cells and transform them into tumor-supporting phenotype. The synthetic peptides target tumor secreting GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) and proteins acting through integrin receptors through RGD motifs. Application of these peptides block tumor invasion and growth in vivo.

The recepiant of the patent are Prof. Bożena Kamińska, Dr Małgorzata Sielska, Dr Paweł Wiśniewski, and Dr Aleksandra Ellert-Miklaszewska with ownership to Glia Sp. z o.o. Patent is also under consideration in Europe, Israel, and Canada.

Our integration/workshop retreat

We have visited Uniejów (nearby Łódź) to take part in the lab integration retreat where we also took part in workshop on statistics for biologists.

During the retreat we were also able to visit local castle and thermal waters. On site we participated in beer tasting and food paring sessions. The statistics workshop was led by Dr Jakub Mieczkowski which was followed by a lively discussion on our day-to-day data analysis.