Scientific and educational achievements
At present, the Department is realising three OPUS grants of the National Science Centre as well as a statutory research programme of the University. The results have already been presented during scientific congresses abroad and three national conferences, and currently publications are being prepared on the basis of these results. What is more, the staff of the Department have authored more than a dozen original papers and literature-based reviews published in Polish and foreign journals.
As far as education is concerned, it was a great achievement of the Department to create from scratch a programme of teaching histology, embryology and cell biology in English. The staff of the Department have also prepared and implemented during classes two optional courses, including one in English: “Introduction to the biology of a neoplastic cell” and “Foundations of regenerative medicine”.
It is worth emphasising that most of the materials accompanying lectures and seminars and preparing to practical classes are available to students on the web page of the Department.
The scientific profile of the Department
Research-wise, the Department is primarily interested in looking for new molecular markers of human cancers, such as colorectal cancer or kidney cancer. Research is financed by the statutory funds of the University of Warmia and Mazury (UWM) as well as by the research grants of the National Science Centre. The Department of Human Histology and Embryology of the UWM cooperates with the Department of Pathomorphology of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the UWM, the Department of Histology and Urology of the Medical University of Gdańsk, as well as the Surgical Oncology Ward of the Independent Public Health Care Centre of the Ministry of Interior and the Warmia and Mazury Oncology Centre in Olsztyn.
One of the projects’ realized in the Department of Human Histology and Embryology concerns genes’ expression profile in an apoptotic pathway which is partly independent of p53 in the tissue of colorectal cancer, one of the most common cancers. With the use of immunohistochemical (IHC) and molecular biology (real-time PCR, Western blotting) methods, gene expression of PLAGL1, p300, p53 and Bax has been analysed in the neoplastic tissue, in macroscopically unchanged samples from patients' colon, and in colonic mucosal biopsies of healthy subjects. In an another project expression of galanin (a neuropetide which reveals neuroprotective properties) is studied qualitatively and quantitatively in the intramural ganglia of the colon in patients suffering from colorectal cancer,
Due to the heterogeneity of kidney cancer, another project specifically refers to the ccRCC (clear cell renal cell carcinoma). Gene expression of PLAGL1, p300, p53 and Bax has been analysed in neoplastic tissue and the unchanged part of the renal parenchyma of the same patient with the use of IHC method and molecular biology techniques. Pathogenesis of ccRCC is also analysed in a study that concerns participation of microRNA in the regulation of DDR1 and IKKb gene expression in the cell lines of the renal cancer.
Plans for development
As far as organisational work is concerned, it is a priority to acquire new laboratory and teaching space, which will allow the Department to expand its educational and research offer. The next objectives are to set up a student scientific club and to establish doctoral studies.
Didactic materials
Attention Students !
Didactic materials are available on the web page VIRTUAL INTERACTIVE PATIENT CLINIC.