Leonora Buzanska - Bioscetch

Professor and Director of Mossakowski Medical Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, Head of the Department of Stem Cell Bioengineering. An expert in stem cell biology, neurobiology, bioengineering of neural stem cells. Prof. Buzanska completed her PhD in cell biology from Warsaw University in 1992, DSc (habilitation) in medical sciences from Mossakowski Medical Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences (IMDiK) in 2007 and obtained the title of Professor in Medical Sciences from President of Poland in 2014. The employment included: 1982-1996 Department of Biology, Warsaw University; 1996-present Mossakowski Medical Research Institute.  From 2010 she is a Head of Stem Cell Bioengineering Unit in Mossakowski Medical research Institute. Between 2005-2010 she worked as the senior visiting scientist in Institute of Health and Consumer Protection, JRC, the Research Directorate General of the European Commission, Ispra, Italy. She explores the neural stem cell biology field since 1997 and her papers in 2001 were pioneering in showing that fetal cord blood derived stem cells can attain in vitro neural features. She is an author of multiple scientific original papers and reviews and a member of Polish and European scientific societies related to research into stem cell biology, neurobiology and toxicology. She received a range of awards for her scientific achievements i.a. “Proton Award” of the Ministry of Science and Informatization and Polish TV Program 2, Jerzy Konorski Award of Polish Neuroscience Society and the Committee on Neurobiology PAS, the European Commission Joint Research Centre’s Excellence Award; J. Śniadecki Award of Division VI (Medical Sciences) of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She was also was awarded “Idol 25-lecia”and “Idol 30-lecia” of Chance for the Blind Foundation for her social achievements.

Currently main research topics include: bioengineering of neural stem cells, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) derived brain organoids for modeling of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. Controlling in vitro of stem cells functional properties. Optimization of in vitro culture to derive therapeutically competent cells.