Life Sciences & Biotechnology Center
The Life Sciences & Biotechnology Center is a modern institution with a research, development, and implementation profile. We focus on significant civilization problems and develop competencies in neurobiology, oncology, and broadly understood biotechnology.
We are proud of our research teams dealing with important research topics and of our service laboratories. They support research groups within the Łukasiewicz Research Network, as well as provide services to external clients. We also have a BIOBANK, unique on a national scale, which deals with creating population collections and collections focused on selected disease entities.
We are constantly modernizing and expanding the machine park enabling world-class research as part of our projects and those carried out in multi-center scientific consortia.
Together, we create a scientific ecosystem that supports creative minds and top-class scientific research and implementation.
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The team is conducting innovative and interdisciplinary research to understand the organization and function of synapses in the central nervous system and between motor synapses and skeletal muscles. Research work is focused on deciphering the molecular mechanisms that coordinate synaptic function in health and disease.
Biobank of the Łukasiewicz Research Network – PORT Polish Center for Technology Development is one of the largest centres of collection and storage of human biological material in Poland.
Genome Dynamics Research Group conducts interdisciplinary research in the field of biological sciences, biotechnology and molecular medicine. The group’s main areas of interest are DNA repair mechanisms, mutation fixation processes and evolution of the genome structure.
The focus of our team is to understand the function of astrocyte-specific pathways in the brain physiology and pathology, particularly those mediating neurobiological phenotypes related to psychiatric disorders.
In the Neuroplasticity and Metabolism Research Group, we strive to define the precise mechanism that regulates peripheral metabolism by the brain. We focus on regulation of eating – especially the feeling of hunger and satiety.
Our group investigates the role of a newly discovered group of immune cells termed innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) within the tumor microenvironment and their interactions with malignant and non-malignant stromal cells, using a variety of interdisciplinary approaches.
In our research, we investigate the mechanisms of neurodegeneration. In particular, we are interested to understand how protein quality control fails in aged cells, making them prompt to neurodegenerative diseases.
The Immunotherapy Research Group is engaged in research and development of immune system-based therapies for cancer treatment. Our research covers a wide range of studies focused on stimulating, modifying or enhancing the anti-cancer immune responses. The Group strives to identify new therapeutic targets and develop innovative technologies that can increase the effectiveness and safety of immunotherapy.
This group bridges Neuroscience with Oncology aiming to comprehend neurogenic regulation of carcinogenesis and associated pain. Employing state-of-the-art techniques (i.e., in vivo optical imaging, electrophysiology and optogenetics) we selectively sample and modulate activity of genetically defined neuronal populations and analyse (FACS, tissue clearing, omics) their effects on tumour biology.
The group works at the intersection of brain aging research and virology. with advanced techniques, our goal is to apply the effects of neurotropic viruses on the operation of devices. Specifically, we are investigating a phenomenon called virus-induced senescence. Thanks to the application of our research, it is possible that they are delivered as senolytics.
