3P Medicine Laboratory, Medical University of Gdańsk

01/12/2025

📣We are happy to share that Agnieszka Misztak and Jakub Mieczkowski are the co-authors of the paper “Development of a highly differentiated rat brain organoid model for exploring glioblastoma invasion dynamics and therapy” that has recently appeared in Neuro Oncology (IF=13.4).

🧠The paper is the result of the cooperation with the group of Professor Rolf Bjerkvig from University of Bergen (Norway) and Qilu Hospital of Shandong University and Brain Science Research Institute. The authors show that rat brain organoids (rBOs) can rapidly mature into fully differentiated brain-like structures, making them a powerful model for exploring how glioblastoma interacts with the brain microenvironment. The rBOs serve as an effective target brain structure for studying GB invasion parameters and for evaluating therapeutic interventions.

➡You can read full article at: https://tinyurl.com/yc7h33ec

27/11/2025

🤝Meet Julia Zakaszewska – our new PhD candidate in IRA3P! She joined the team in November 2025 as part of the First Team project “Diagnosis of High-Grade Brain Tumors Using Liquid Biopsy and Machine Learning,” led by Jakub Mieczkowski, PhD and funded by the Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej.

💡Julia graduated this year from mathematics at Technical University of Gda Gdańsk completing a thesis “Solving a first-order nonlinear differential equations system in the Lotka-Volterra model using artificial neural networks”. Beyond her thesis, Julia also took part in an ambitious interdisciplinary project “Feature extraction from medical records to increase the accuracy of intracranial aneurysm rupture likelihood.” This work is a powerful example of applying advanced mathematics and modern language models to real clinical problems, bridging the worlds of clinicians and data scientists to support better medical decision-making.

📊 In the First Team project, Julia will analyze biological data and develop statistical and machine-learning classification models to detect the presence of tumor-derived DNA in patients with brain tumors. These models will be built using epigenetic and fragmentomic features extracted from urine and blood samples collected from patients with gliomas.

🤝Julia – welcome on board!

21/11/2025

🎙️Another podcast featuring an IRA3P team member!

🚀 Listen to the Radio TOK FM episode by Cezary Łasiczka, where Kuba Mieczkowski talks about cosmic radiation, research during space missions, and the future of space medicine!

➡More: https://tinyurl.com/55ub7xm3

19/11/2025

🎙️ We invite you to listen to another podcast created by one of our team members - Magdalena Koczkowska. Magda is a specialist in laboratory medical genetics and an expert in the molecular diagnostics of neurofibromatosis and schwannomatosis.

❓ In the 4th episode of “NF-olog Academy”, she talks with Agnieszka Jatczak-Gaca, a specialist in pediatric oncology and hematology, about the genetics of Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1). They discuss the fundamental aspects of genetic testing and the role of interdisciplinary collaboration between clinicians and molecular geneticists.

➡The podcast is sponsored by AstraZeneca and is available upon registration here: https://onkologia-dziecieca.pl/podcasty

12/11/2025

📣We are thrilled to share that Jakub Mieczkowski from IRA3P is one of the main organizers of the 1st Polish Space Medicine Conference, taking place on 13th and 14th of November in Military Institute of Aviation Medicine in Warsaw.

🚀 The 1st National Conference on Space Medicine in Poland brings together scientists, clinicians, and technologists exploring how the human body adapts to life beyond Earth. From AI applications to -omics research and cosmic radiation studies – you can discover Poland’s contribution to this rapidly growing field.

➡Listen here to learn more about the Polish contribution in space medicine: https://tinyurl.com/ycyvpdnw

➡More about the event: https://wiml.gumed.edu.pl/

07/11/2025

❓Curious about the First Team project, funded by Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej recently launched in our unit?

🎙️Tune in to the Polish Radio podcast featuring Jakub Mieczkowski, the project leader, who explains our innovative approach using liquid biopsy for glioma diagnostics.

➡Listen here:

O wykorzystaniu ciekłej biopsji do diagnostyki guza mózgu opowiada prof. J. Mieczkowski z GUMedu, a prof. H. Turski z IWC PAN - o wykorzystaniu obu stron podłoża z azotku galu do integracji urządzeń optoelektronicznych i elektronicznych.

05/11/2025

🎓 We are proud to share that our PhD student at IRA3P, Maria Andreou, successfully defended her thesis yesterday at the Department of Pharmacy – with distinction!

🧬Under the supervision of Arkadiusz Piotrowski, Maria worked on molecular classification of microscopically healthy mammary tissue collected from the patients diagnoses with sporadic breast cancer. The genomic and transcriptomic analysis showed the existence of intermediate state, where seemingly healthy normal tissue harbor alteration driving tumor initiation and metastasis. This tissue has been shown to play an active role in cancer progression through early tumorigenic processes.

📰 Maria’s dissertation was prepared as a hybrid format and presents the results three papers published in PLOS ONE, NPJ Brest Cancer and International Journal of Cancer (total IF=15.3) as well as one manuscript that is currently under review in BMC Cancer.

👏 Huge congratulations to Maria for achieving this important milestone in your scientific career! Throughout your PhD, you proved to be a dedicated, creative, and passionate researcher and we wish you continued success and inspiration in the future!

30/10/2025

❓ No doubt we live in the era of artificial intelligence. It has become an integral part of the daily work of scientists and clinicians. Yesterday on Radio Gdańsk Jakub Mieczkowski, PhD from IRA3P and dr Marcin Ekman shared their opinions about the digital solution in the world of science and medicine.

💡Jakub stressed that AI in medicine has a long history. The first attempts to use it in diagnostics date back to the 1970s and 1980s. While modern models, such as popular language models, rely mainly on statistical analysis and predicting the next elements based on large datasets, they don’t understand medicine the way a doctor does. Their purpose is not to replace specialists but to support them in analyzing complex information.

🧬 A good example of such approach is the First Team project granted to Jakub by Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej, that has been just launched in our unit. Jakub and his team will use machine learning to analyze features of circulating DNA fragments to develop new, non-invasive diagnostic methods for patients with brain tumors.

🎙️If you want to learn more about AI and its role in medicine listen to the broadcast on Radio Gdańsk: https://tinyurl.com/cw2vzxsu

24/10/2025

📣 We are excited to announce that our new paper “Comprehensive genetic screening of 70 severe adolescent idiopathic scoliosis probands reveals novel pathogenic variants and syndromic associations” has just been published in Frontiers in Medicine (Q1, IF = 3.0)! This publication presents the key findings from Monika Horbacz’s PhD project under the supervision of Arkadiusz Piotrowski and Magdalena Koczkowska, PhD.

🤝 This study is the result of an excellent collaboration with orthopedic surgeon Rafal Pankowski, who led the project from the clinical side.

💡The study shows that about one in seven patients with severe idiopathic scoliosis carries a pathogenic genetic variant, revealing that many “idiopathic” cases have an underlying genetic cause. It highlights the genetic heterogeneity of scoliosis and recommends integrating whole exome and SNP array analyses into clinical diagnostics to enable personalized genetic counseling and management.

➡You can read full article at: https://tinyurl.com/28hhb6mt

Photo: Paweł Sudara

23/10/2025

🧠 We’re happy to announce the launch of our new project “Diagnosis of high-grade brain tumors using liquid biopsy and machine learning,” led by Jakub Mieczkowski, PhD and funded by the Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej under the First Team program! The project officially started on September 1st.

❓The project “Diagnosis of High-Grade Brain Tumors Using Liquid Biopsy and Machine Learning” aims to develop analytical tools to detect tumor-derived DNA in blood samples. By analyzing features such as fragment length, sequence composition, genomic location, and DNA methylation, the project seeks to distinguish circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from normal cell-free DNA (cfDNA). The project will be carried out with Javad Nazarian, world-class expert in pediatric oncology, head of the Translational Research Unit in Kinderspital Zürich. Project partners also include clinicists from COPERNICUS Hospital: Ewa Iżycka-Świeszewska, and Piotr Stogowski and Genegoggle company.

💡During the first month, we focused on recruiting new team members through an open, international, and transparent process in line with Good HR practices. We’re thrilled to share the news that Urszula Ławrynowicz was selected after a rigorous evaluation and will be working in First Team project as a postdoctoral researcher for the next three years!

🧬 With her extensive expertise in molecular and cellular laboratory techniques, Ula will be responsible for the wet lab work, focusing on ctDNA analysis and Oxford Nanopore sequencing. We wish you the best of luck and success in this new chapter!

07/10/2025

💡Today two postdocs, Paulina Kowalczyk and Edyta Rychlicka-Buniowska from IRA3P had the great opportunity to participate in the workshop organized by Analityk Genetyka - 10x Genomics - from data to results – practical single-cell analysis.

🧬🧫 The session guided participants through the entire workflow of single-cell gene expression analysis — from experimental design and raw data processing to quality assessment and the first steps of data interpretation. They explored how to turn biological data into meaningful research insights and had the chance to discuss their own ideas and future directions with experienced bioinformaticians.

🔬We’re excited to bring these new insights into our ongoing projects at IRA3P!

21/09/2025

💪🏻Today two employees of IRA3P Natalia Filipowicz and Monika Horbacz ran in the Race for the Cure .

💞The Race for the Cure is the largest European sport event supporting the fight against breast cancer and its prevention.

🫶 We are happy that we can support the fight against cancer not only through our research, but also by taking part in events like this.

Drużyno Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny do boju. Jesteśmy z Wami.
Fundacja OmeaLife Miasto Gdańsk Hevelianum Uniwersyteckie Centrum Kliniczne