My principal research interests involve several aspect of skin endocrinology, with the stress on skin pathologies and their treatment. I am particularly interested in synthesis and metabolism of vitamin D and potential use of vitamin D derivatives in treatment of civilization diseases including cancer. My team investigates anticancer activity of several vitamin D analogues on melanoma model, and recently introduced in our lab osteosarcoma and colorectal cancer cell models. Second main project covers role of neuropeptides and hormones in skin physiology and pathogenesis and crosstalk amongst keratinocytes, melanocytes and mast cells. The studies in my laboratory are sponsored by MNiSW (vitamin D and mastocytosis projects) and PTGen (grant for BIOMOL biotechnology student`s group) and are conducted in collaboration with local and international scientists.

Research interests:
Changes of hormonal and neurohormonal reactivity in aging rats subjected to fasting/refeeding treatment.

The expression of inflammatory cytokine IL-33 and cytokines: RANKL, OPG, sclerotin involved in regulation of calcium homeostasis in patients with colitis ulcerosa.

Piotr Wierzbicki has been working on analysis of putative tumor suppressor genes in tissue samples of colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. Scientist’s workshop on comprehensive gene expression analysis at mRNA and protein level includes qPCR, western blot and immunocytochemistry techniques. Epigenetic factors are also studied, such as LOH and hypermethylation of promoter’s region, frequently involved in genes’ in/activation .

In my research work, I investigate issues related to the role of PDIA3 protein in a variety of cellular processes, i.e. vitamin D-induced cell signaling, autophagy processes, or endoplasmic reticulum stress. I conduct my research on squamous cell carcinoma cell lines and immortalized keratinocyte line, serving as a non-cancerous control for the study. My research techniques include methods for analyzing gene expression (qPCR), protein expression profile (western blot), and studying cellular localization using fluorescent probes. In addition, I also use other molecular biology methods in my work, i.e. microscopic methods, flow cytometry and colorimetric assays.