Jacek Kuźnicki

Professor Kuźnicki is a head of a research group at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw; director of the Institute in 2001-2018. Ordinary member of the Polish Academy of Sciences; member of the National Science Centre Council (2018-2022) and its chairman in 2020-2022. In 1980, he was awarded doctorate in biochemistry from the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. Completed a post-doc fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, USA (1981-1984). In 1987, he became an assistant professor and in 1993, professor.

Research interests focus on the mechanisms of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and rare diseases, with particular emphasis on the role of homeostasis and calcium ion signaling. These processes are studied at the genomic, proteomic, cellular and organism levels presently using zebrafish. Together with his team, he described i.a. participation of STIM and ORAI proteins in the SOCE process in neurons, new role of β-catenin as an activator of Cacna1G gene transcription and the mechanism of its accumulation in thalamic neurons, characterized calmyrins and Sgt1 protein, discovered and characterized CacyBP/SIP protein and calcyclin, and identified the new mutations in presenilins that cause familial Alzheimer’s disease. Awarded i.a. with the Award of the Minister of Science and Higher Education for lifetime achievement, the Officer's and Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, and Crystal Brussels Sprout Award for outstanding FP7 achievements in the individual category. Leader of research projects: NCN (OPUS x 2, MAESTRO), in H2020 WIDESPREAD-ERA Chairs: MOSaIC, FP7: FishMed, HEALTH-PROT, COMBIOM, ERA-NET NEURON - NeuConnect, ERA-NET RUS - TargetSOCE, in FP6: PROMEMORIA, APOPIS, and in FP5: director of Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biomedicine. Co-author of over 150 scientific publications.