{"id":102595,"date":"2026-06-30T14:28:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/two-projects-receive-funding-in-the-opus-30-competition\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T16:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:55:18","slug":"two-projects-receive-funding-in-the-opus-30-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/two-projects-receive-funding-in-the-opus-30-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Projects Receive Funding in the OPUS 30 Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Research by Dr. hab. Marek Wagner on the role of innate lymphoid cells in melanoma development and work on a new tool for assessing biochar safety, conducted with the involvement of Prof. Andrzej Bia\u0142owiec, have received funding from the National Science Centre. <\/strong><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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This year\u2019s OPUS and SONATA calls were the largest in the history of the National Science Centre to date. A total of 2,091 proposals were submitted to the OPUS 30 call alone\u2014nearly 15 percent more than the year before\u2014and 279 projects were selected for funding. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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A New Perspective on Antitumor Immunity in Melanoma<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The project led by Dr. hab. Marek Wagner, titled \u201cInvestigating the Role of ILC2 Cells in Shaping Blood Vessels in Melanoma,\u201d has received nearly PLN 4 million in funding and was the highest-rated project in the NZ4 panel of the OPUS 30 call. A total of 116 proposals were submitted in this panel, of which only 14 projects were selected for funding.<\/p>

Despite significant advances in immunotherapy, effective treatment of melanoma is still not possible for all patients. For this reason, the search for new immune mechanisms involved in controlling tumor growth remains one of the key challenges in modern oncology.<\/p>

The research conducted by Dr. hab. Marek Wagner, leader of the Innate Immunity Research Group<\/a> at the Population Diagnostics Center, focuses on group 2 innate lymphoid cells, or ILC2 cells. These cells are a relatively recently discovered population of immune cells that are abundant in barrier tissues, including the skin. Their function in cancer, particularly in melanoma, remains poorly understood.<\/p>

The project aims to investigate the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate interactions between ILC2 cells and vascular endothelial cells in melanoma. The results will provide a better understanding of the role of these interactions in shaping the tumor microenvironment and may lay the groundwork for the development of new therapeutic strategies.<\/p>

A better understanding of these processes may contribute to the identification of new therapeutic targets and the development of innovative strategies to support the treatment of melanoma and other solid tumors.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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A New Tool for Assessing Biochar Safety<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Funding in the OPUS 30 call was also awarded to the CRMMTool project, titled \u201cThe Carbon Relative Molar Mass Index as a New Tool for Assessing the Chemical Stability and Environmental Safety of Biochar.\u201d The project is led by the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, with Dr. Ewa Sygu\u0142a serving as principal investigator. \u0141ukasiewicz \u2013 PORT is a project partner, and the project leader on the institute\u2019s side is Prof. Andrzej Bia\u0142owiec, head of the Biomaterials Engineering and Environmental Technologies Research Group<\/a> at the Materials Science and Engineering Center.<\/p>

The total value of the project is PLN 404,216, of which PLN 138,470 has been allocated to activities carried out at \u0141ukasiewicz \u2013 PORT. The project focuses on developing a method for assessing whether biochar is not only chemically stable but also environmentally safe.<\/p>

Biochar is produced through the pyrolysis of biomass, a process in which biomass is heated in the absence of oxygen. Because of its ability to store carbon over long periods of time and its potential applications in agriculture, soil improvement, water retention, land reclamation, and organic waste management, biochar is considered one of the promising tools supporting climate protection and the circular economy.<\/p>

Not all biochar has the same properties. Volatile organic compounds, including potentially hazardous substances, may be formed during its production or storage. Current methods for evaluating biochar focus primarily on its chemical stability, but they do not directly indicate whether the material may emit volatile organic compounds.<\/p>

The aim of the project is to determine whether the CRMM index, or Carbon Relative Molar Mass index, developed by Prof. Andrzej Bia\u0142owiec, can become a tool that combines the assessment of biochar\u2019s chemical stability with the assessment of the risk of volatile organic compound emissions. At \u0141ukasiewicz \u2013 PORT, specialized analyses of the chemical and structural properties of biochars will be conducted, including analyses of elemental composition, surface properties, and functional groups. These data will be crucial for validating the CRMM index and developing a \u201cBiochar Safety Map,\u201d designed to help classify biochars according to their chemical stability and environmental safety.<\/p>

In the future, the project results may support the development of new quality standards and certification systems for biochar. They may also help producers optimize the manufacturing process and enable users to select materials that are safer for the environment.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Science Centre has awarded funding to two projects: research by Dr. hab. Marek Wagner on innate lymphoid cells in melanoma development and work involving Prof. Andrzej Bia\u0142owiec on a new tool for assessing biochar safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":102594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[642],"class_list":["post-102595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bez-kategorii","tag-badania"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-07 19:33:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102595"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102601,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102595\/revisions\/102601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/port.lukasiewicz.gov.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}