Agnieszka D'Antonio-Chronowska, Ph.D.

Dr. DAntonio-Chronowska studied Biology at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland) and conducted the experimental work for her M.S. thesis (2005) in the Department of Human Genetics at Georg-August University of Gottingen (Germany). Working with Prof. W Engel and Dr. A Mannan she demonstrated the role of SPG33, one of a newly discovered interacting partner of SPASTIN, in the development of hereditary spastic paraplegia. Next she obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine (2011) from the European Institute of Oncology and University of Milan (Italy) working with Dr. G Testa. During her doctoral studies she dissected role of one of the epigenetic agent, Mll4/Wbp7, during lymphopoiesis and mounting an immune response. This work was performed in collaboration with Dr. S Casola. Subsequently she joined the laboratory of Dr. MP Colombo at the National Institute of Cancer in Milan (Italy). There, starting from a single observation, she proved the role of a member of JmjC domain-containing family in the development of aggressive, androgen independent, prostate cancer. She proposed this protein as a new target in a potential co-therapy with the therapy currently used in clinic. Dr. DAntonio-Chronowska joined the lab of Prof. K Frazer in June 2014 where she studies hereditary genetic alteration involved in cardiovascular disease. To elucidate these genetic variants she applies high-throughput assays in iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes.