3P Medicine Laboratory, Medical University of Gdańsk

25/07/2025

💡 This week, our team from IRA3P — Arkadiusz Piotrowski, Magdalena Koczkowska and Monika Horbacz — together with Ewelina Szczerba and Marta Kubiak from the Oncology Center in Bydgoszcz, had the incredible opportunity to visit the European headquarters of MGI in Berlin!

🧬 The visit, made possible thanks to Tomasz Sztuka and Marta Białas from Altium Poland, included a tour of the impressive Customer Experience Center and advanced laboratories featuring the latest MGI technology — including some exciting upcoming prototypes.

🌟A special thank you to Dr Riddhi Patel for guiding us through the capabilities of the cutting-edge DNBSEQ-T1+ sequencer. We also had the chance to prepare and sequence our own samples!

22/07/2025

📣 We are happy to share the news that Paulina Kowalczyk is one of the co-authors of a paper “Effects of a polyphenol-rich extract blend, probiotics, and hydrolyzed fiber on quality of life and gut health markers in patients with irritable bowel syndrome—A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial” that appeared on 7th of July in Frontiers in Nutrition (IF=5.1).

🌿 A new clinical study investigated a novel synbiotic formulation for patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)—a chronic gut-brain disorder affecting up to 10% of the global population.

🧪The formulation combined probiotics (Bifidobacterium, Saccharomyces boulardii), partially hydrolyzed guar gum (PHGG), and polyphenol-rich extracts from Aronia melanocarpa and Sambucus nigra.

✅ After 2 months, patients who received the full combination reported significant improvements in quality of life, especially reduced dysphoria, compared to placebo. The treatment also lowered levels of inflammatory markers like IL-8 and TNF-α, and increased short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in stool—indicating a beneficial effect on gut inflammation and microbiome health.

➡ You can read full article at: https://tinyurl.com/5d6rxpu8

10/07/2025

📣 We’re excited to share another fantastic achievement by the 3PLAB team! On June 26, 2025, based on decision 195/2025 of the Council of Medical Sciences at MUG, Magda Koczkowska was officially granted her habilitation in the field of medical and health sciences, in the discipline of medical sciences.

💡 The habilitation was awarded based on Magda’s outstanding scientific achievement:“The importance of genetic testing results in the diagnostic and clinical management of patients with neurofibromatoses and schwannomatoses”. This work includes 5 original first-author publications with a total Impact Factor of 31.406, published between 2018 and 2023 in American Journal of Human Genetics, Genetics in Medicine and Human Mutation.

👏Congratulation Magda on this significant milestone in your scientific journey! Your passion and dedication to advancing medical diagnostics are truly inspiring! We’re confident your work will continue to make a meaningful impact in the field of phakomatoses!

08/07/2025

📣 We’re proud to share more great news — the PhD candidate under Jakub Mieczkowski's supervision, Adrian Kacperczyk-Perdyan, MD has received yet another well-deserved recognition! Adrian was awarded a prize by the Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego in the 20th edition of the competition for outstanding young scientists. Adrian was distinguished together with three other scientists from Gdański Uniwersytet Medyczny (Medical University of Gdańsk)!

➡ https://lnkd.in/dphfY4Ef

👏 Congratulations Adrian on this recognition!

07/07/2025

📣 We are thrilled to share that Ula Ławrynowicz, one of our highly skilled specialist at IRA3P, successfully defended her PhD thesis last Friday at the Department of Medicine of our university!

💡 Ula conducted her PhD project “The Role of the CCR5-CCL5 Axis in Treg-Dependent Regulation of the Inflammatory Response in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes” under the supervision of Monika Ryba-Stanisławowska at the Department of Medical Immunology. Part of her research findings was published in the article “Exploring CCR5 + T regulatory cell subset dysfunction in type 1 diabetes patients: implications for immune regulation” that appeared in June 2024 in Immunologic Research.

👏 Huge congratulations Ula on this achievement and best of luck your continued scientific journey!

16/06/2025

💡 Curious about what the vanishing Y chromosome means for men’s health? Don’t miss Liam Drew’s article in New Scientist, issue 3541 (3 May 2025).

🧬The fact that some men permanently lose their Y chromosome in certain cells has been known since the 1960s, but at the time, scientists viewed it as a consequence of aging and the phenomenon received little attention. That was mainly due to the opinion that the Y chromosome makes little contribution to phenotype beyond its roles in s*x differentiation and normal s***m production. The first studies linking loss of the Y chromosome (LOY) in lymphocytes of aging men to shorter lifespan, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease emerged between 2014 and 2016, initiated by Jan Dumanski and Lars Forsberg. Since then, around 200 papers have reported various findings related to the causes, mechanisms and consequences of LOY.

📰 In his popular science article, Liam Drew discusses the phenomenon of the most rapidly evolving human chromosome—one that has lost 97% of its genes over 200 million years of evolution. Drawing on interviews with leading researchers in the field—Jan Dumanski, Lars Forsberg, Kenneth Walsh, John Perry, and Dan Theodorescu—Drew presents a concise overview of the current state of knowledge on LOY, its role, and its potential consequences.

➡Read more at: https://lnkd.in/g4kz3ERV

02/06/2025

📅 From 24th to 27th of May Justyna Prokopiuk and Urszula Ławrynowicz had the great pleasure of participating in the ESHG - European Society of Human Genetics Conference in Milan. The conference program was packed with inspiring plenary sessions, engaging educational panels, hands-on workshops, get2gether networking events, and poster sessions with authors — all across 26 diverse topics!

🗣️Justyna and Ula presented their poster “In-depth molecular analysis of TSC1 and TSC2 genes in 76 Polish tuberous sclerosis complex probands, with a focus on detecting low-level mosaicism in blood” during the Genomics of Rare Diseases session. They shared findings from LIDER project (Narodowe Centrum Badań i Rozwoju) led by Magdalena Koczkowska, PhD, highlighting how sensitive Duplex sequencing can be a powerful complementary tool to detect low-level mosaicism in TSC (Tuberous sclerosis complex ) patients. This approach holds promise for improving diagnostics and enabling timely medical care.

💬Their poster drew a lot of attention, and the conference was a valuable time for learning and connecting with the scientific community.

29/05/2025

📣We are proud to share that Maria Andreou, a PhD candidate at IRA3P, has received a distinction from the Polish Academy of Sciences in the field of biological and agricultural sciences for her paper: “Prelude to malignancy: A gene expression signature in normal mammary gland from breast cancer patients suggests pre-tumorous alterations and is associated with adverse outcomes.”

➡https://tinyurl.com/3f47e8hc

💡The paper was published in June 2024 in in International Journal of Cancer (IF=6.4). Maria and the co-authors identified a distinct gene expression signature in seemingly normal mammary gland samples from breast cancer individuals. Their study highlights the potential presence of a pre-tumorigenic environment, within the ostensibly normal mammary gland tissue, promoting changes that are closely linked to patient mortality. It offers an indication for comprehensive monitoring of breast cancer patients with recurrence or secondary tumor events.

👏 Congratulations on this outstanding achievement!

15/05/2025

🧠 ❓Can numbers help us understand life?

💡 Yesterday on Radio Gdańsk S.A., Kuba Mieczkowski - a mathematicians by training and longtime computational biologist - shared his view that math is a language. This language helps us to describe reality in a structured and concise way.

🎙️If you want to know how deeply maths contribute to life sciences, listen to the broadcast on Radio Gdańsk: https://lnkd.in/dNXtxYaE

12/05/2025

📣 We’re thrilled to share another good news about funding for IRA3P member: Adrian Perdyan, PhD student in Jakub Mieczkowski’s group, got the prestigious START grant by the Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej! The aim of the program is to recognize the most talented young researchers and encourage their further scientific development by enabling them to fully dedicate themselves to research work.

👏 Congratulations to Adrian on this well-deserved recognition!

➡ https://www.fnp.org.pl/laureaci-start-2025/

12/05/2025

💡Are you interested in PhD in molecular biology with special focus on next gen technologies and cutting edge DNA analysis methods? This opportunity might be just what you're looking for!

📣 Dr. Irene Tiemann-Boege, our partner at JKU - Johannes Kepler Universität Linz is looking for self-motivated and creative PhD candidate to explore how mutations arise at meiotic recombination hotspots using cutting-edge sequencing in yeast. Ready to dive into the mechanisms of genetic change during reproduction? Apply now!

➡https://www.linkedin.com/posts/3pmedicinelaboratory_jku-linz-phd-offer-activity-7327656300723462144-Wvtl?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAADVYpMcBBV2ZyW4JVzqVlLu1jvc7qM72HOU

➡More about Tiemann-Boege's Single Molecule Genetics Group here: https://lnkd.in/dU2mdUXa

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

07/05/2025

📣 We’re thrilled to share that Jakub Mieczkowski, PhD project, “Diagnosis of high-grade brain tumors using liquid biopsy and machine learning,” has been accepted into the prestigious First Team program by the Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej (Foundation for Polish Science)!

👏 Congratulations to Jakub on this well-deserved recognition! We’re excited to see the impact this innovative research!

�https://www.fnp.org.pl/assets/Lista-projekt%C3%B3w-wybranych-i-niewybranych-do-dofinansowania.pdf