Katarzyna Pieczonka
Katarzyna is a 4th year PhD student at the Institute of Medical Science in Dr. Michael Fehlings’ laboratory, where she is investigating personalized cell therapies for spinal cord injury. Previously, the majority of cell therapies for spinal cord injury have been tested in a “once size fits all” manner and have insufficiently addressed patients’ diverse injuries. As such, many pre-clinical efforts have failed to be translated to a clinical setting. Therefore, in her studies, Katarzyna has been working on developing and characterizing a single adjustable cell therapy that can be tailored to suit various patients’ needs. She hopes that this strategy will facilitate optimal therapeutic recovery by allocating patients to distinct treatment paradigms. Her work has resulted in seven publications, including primary articles, reviews and book chapters. She has also presented her work at local and international conferences, such as the ISSCR and SFN annual meetings. Katarzyna’s research efforts have furthermore been recognized with several awards, including the CIHR CGS Doctoral Research Award. Beyond her research, Katarzyna enjoys teaching and she assists in course development. She would like to thank Dr. Michael Fehlings and her lab members for their support.