Wojciech Wojiechowski, Ph.D.

 

Dr. Wojciechowski received his doctoral degree from the division of Experimental Medicine at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec while working in the lab of Dr. Danuta Radzioch on the molecular mechanisms of macrophage mediated resistance of mice to infections with intracellular pathogens. In 2002 he joined the laboratory of Dr. Igor Espinoza-Delgado at the NIA at the NIH in Baltimore, MD to work on the effects of anti-neoplastic agent bryostatin-1 on the expression of CD20 molecule by Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) B cells. The main objective of those studies was to evaluate whether co-treatment with bryostatin-1 would improve efficacy of treatment of NHL with Rituximab (anti-CD20 antibody). In 2006 Dr. Wojciechowski joined the laboratory of Dr. Frances Lund at the Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake, NY, where he started working on the characterization of the phenotype and function of the cytokine-producing effector B cells. The main focus of the project was to investigate the role of effector B cells in immune responses to infection and during development of autoimmune diseases. This work has been continued after Dr. Lund's group moved to the University of Rochester and expanded to include efforts to develop in vitro systems for generating human effector B cells. The long term goal of these studies is to investigate the role of cytokine-producing effector B cells in the development and pathology of human autoimmune disorders, and the potential implications of these findings for designing better treatments including B cell depletion therapies.