We would like to officially welcome a new member of the JCET team, Aneta Radziwon-Balicka, Ph.D., who will be carrying out a project entitled: “Effects of tyrosine kinase inhibitors on Syk pathway in eNOS-based platelet subpopulations and on endothelial barrier integrity“, under funding from the POLONEZ BIS-3 programme.
POLONEZ BIS is co-funded by the European Commission and the Polish National Science Centre under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND grant. In three calls, the programme recruited over 120 experienced researchers from all over the world. They will move to Poland for 24 months to conduct their basic research in public or private institutions of their choice.
A better understanding of the pathogenesis of cardiovascular complications in patients treated with small molecule inhibitors is urgently needed to improve safety of cancer therapy. In this project we aim to characterize a possible effect of platelets on endothelial cells, to study effects of small molecule inhibitors on functionality of endothelium, and finally, to perform proof of principle, clinical study investigating whether platelets from chronic myeloid leukemia patients untreated or treated with small molecule inhibitors may have different effect on platelets compared to the healthy individuals. We anticipate that this research proposal will bring a novel knowledge regarding platelets and their functional effect on endothelial barrier integrity. In addition, the clinical study will test whether chronic myeloid leukemia patients untreated and treated with small molecule inhibitors may have different effect on platelets and on endothelial barrier integrity.