About me
Joanna Zawacka-Pankau is an Associate Professor in Medical Biotechnology at the Department of Oncology-Pathology and a group leader at the Medical University of Warsaw.
She graduated from the University of Gdansk with MSc in biotechnology and obtained a PhD in biochemistry in 2005. She completed her postdoctoral training in p53 tumor biology and targeted therapies at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell biology, Karolinska Institute.
In 2007, she was awarded the Assistant Professor position at the University of Gdansk, and in 2012 she was recruited to the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell biology, Karolinska Institute as Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator.
Research description
Our goal is to identify effective, specific, and selective treatments for solid and hematological cancers that can be rapidly translated into clinical practice.
Towards that goal, we use repurposed drugs to reactivate p53 proteins, the standard of care, and unique pre-clinical models, including primary human cancer cells and humanized mouse models.
We also strive to understand how p53 affects longevity by performing comparative proteins' sequence analysis in short- and long-lived species to understand which critical nodes in the p53 pathway are responsible for longevity in the Animal Kingdom. We hope, in the future, this knowledge could be translated to modulate physiological aging in humans.
TEAM MEMBERS
Qurat Ul Ain Fateh, Postdoc, visiting researcher
Bahareh Sadat Haeri, PhD student, visiting scholar
Matilde Fregni, Erasmus student (former)
LAB WEBSITE
Teaching portfolio
Lecturer - Medical Biochemistry
Course leader - Molecular diagnostics
Education
2005-2006 Postdoc (2 years), Karolinska Institute
2005 PhD in biochemistry, University of Gdansk
2001 MSc in biotechnology, University of Gdansk
Academic honours, awards and prizes
Cathrine Everts Forskningsstiftelse 2021;
Åke Wibergs stiftelse;
National Science Centre, Poland (research grant)