JCET

The results of the SONATA 15 competition announced by the National Science Center (NCN) in Krakow are already known. The list of grants that have received funding also includes the project of Dr. Bartłomiej Zapotoczny: “From the structure of fenestrations in live Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells to real-time in vitro pharmacology“. The research will be carried out at the Institute of Nuclear Physics PAN (IFJ PAN) and in the interdisciplinary laboratory of the Jagiellonian Centre for Experimental Therapeutics (JCET).

• Budget: 927 600 PLN
• Project implementation period: 36 months

For nearly 50 years since the discovery of fenestrae, the speed of processes associated with the changes in the number and size of fenestrae remained speculative. With the development of atomic force microscopy (AFM) imaging methodology, new, so far out of reach, methods of investigating the porosity of LSEC cells appeared.

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.