Dr Barbara Kutryb-Zając, assistant professor at the Department of Biochemistry of the Medical University of Gdańsk (MUG), received a grant as part of the “SONATA 15” competition organized by the National Science Center (NCN). Project “Ecto-enzymes in interactions of vascular endothelium with blood circulating cells in physiology, pathology and therapy; could cells exchange their ecto-enzymes?” will beimplemented for the next 3 years at the Department of Biochemistry at MUG in a consortium with the Jagiellonian Centre for Experimental Therapeutics (JCET) of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and in cooperation with the Department of Biology at the University of Pisa in Italy.

The goal of the awarded project is to demonstrate the role of ecto-enzymes in direct contact between cells. Ecto-enzymes are proteins located on the surface of cells, metabolizing a wide spectrum of substrates, which mediate intercellular communication in physiology and pathology. As part of the project, changes in ecto-enzyme activity induced by the interaction of vascular endothelium with blood cells that can stimulate the formation of an adverse endothelial cell phenotype will be demonstrated. In addition, the role of ecto-enzymes as adhesion molecules and the therapeutic possibilities of compounds modulating their properties in vascular pathologies and cancer will be investigated.

  • The grant amount is PLN 1 498 740.

Previous studies conducted by Barbara Kutryb-Zając carried out in cooperation with JCET focused mainly on intercellular signaling through extracellular nucleotides and their catabolites in cardiovascular pathologies such as atherosclerosis and aortic valve stenosis, as well as in cancer. They showed that nucleotide converting ecto-enzymes were undergoing adverse modifications in these pathologies. This mainly concerned changes in the conversion of nucleotides and adenosine on the surface of endothelial cells lining pathologically altered vessels and aortic valves in patients with atherosclerosis, aortic stenosis or breast cancer, as well as among mouse experimental models of these diseases.

The research work of Barbara Kutryb-Zając has been awarded many times, among others by the Polish Biochemical Society for the best doctoral dissertation in biochemistry defended in 2017, Polish Academy of Sciences for the best original research work published in 2016, the Faculty of Pharmacy with the Department of Laboratory Medicine of the Medical University of Gdańsk for the best master’s thesis defended in 2013, and on numerous international and national scientific conferences.

SONATA 15: MUG and JCET collaboration