Affiliation: Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland

Irena is a PhD student at the Medical University of Lublin, Poland. Her research is on the potential use of aptamers for immunotherapy of advanced lung adenocarcinoma in the Laboratory of Genetics and Immunology, Department of Pneumonology, Oncology, and  Allergology. Her main areas of interest include the development of novel therapeutic strategies based on aptamers, regulatory RNAs and nanocarriers. She has prepared a thorough analysis of the aptamers’ role in the treatment of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer, it is published in Molecules, MDPI. 

She received her Master of Science degree in Biotechnology in 2017 at Maria Sklodowska-Curie University in Lublin. The title of her master  thesis was “Biological activity of polyphenols extracted from fruit mix on normal and cancer human cells”. At University she worked as chairman of the scientific club “Bakcyl” and she was involved in organization of different events for popularization of science, e.g. “Biologists  night”, workshops for high school students, and the Lublin Scientific Festival. As the chairman of the Science Club, she also obtained the Rector's Grant for the purchase of equipment. 

During the period of February 2018 to October 2018 she carried out her internship in the Genetics and Immunology Laboratory at the Department of Pneumonology, Oncology, and Allergology at the Medical University of Lublin  as a senior technician. Her internship work results were presented at XII Polish Lung Cancer Group Annual Conference and the work was awarded by the scientific committee. During her first year at Doctoral School she took part at XIII Polish Lung Cancer Group Annual Conference where she presented a poster on "Aptamers in NSCLC treatment", and IASLC 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer where her poster was titled “Influence of different concentrations of nivolumab on T Cell activation in patients with non-small cell lung cancer in vitro study”.