We are extremely pleased to announce that the winners of this year’s edition of the Rector’s special award for young academic teachers for an outstanding achievement in the form of an original paper published in 2023 are: 

 

Agata Gabryelska MD PhD for 

Evaluation of chronotype and its predictive factors among obstructive sleep apnoea patients Pol Arch Intern Med. 2023; 133 (7–8): 16541 doi:10.20452/pamw.16541 

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education score: 200 points 

IF: 4.8 

An assistant professor at the Department of Sleep Medicine and Metabolic Disorders since  2019. In her research she mainly deals with sleep medicine and focuses on clinical presentation of sleep disorders and the mechanisms accountable for complications and comorbidities with regard to neuropsychiatric symptoms of obstructive sleep apnoea in particular. 

In her research activity to date, A. Gabryelska has been the manager of 5 research projects funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education and National Science Centre. Moreover, she is the supervisor of Preludium grant (National Science Centre) as well as 4 other student grants. She holds the position of a co-supervisor of the Student Scientific Club Sleep Team, which operates as a research team, with A. Gabryelska  MD PhD and M. Sochal MD PhD as its heads.  

She defended her doctoral dissertation „The impact of hypoxemia on the change of HIF-1 alpha expression in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea” before she obtained the title of a professional doctor. Her thesis was awarded by the Scientific Council of Medical Sciences of the Medical University of Lodz and won the award of the Prime Minister for an outstanding doctoral dissertation. A. Gabryelska MD PhD received numerous scholarships and awards, including the scholarship of the Marshal of the Lodz Province, the Minister of Health, the Kościuszko Foundation, the START Foundation of Polish Science, the European Society of Sleep Medicine, European Psychiatric Association or the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. 

As part of her research, she completed numerous scientific internships abroad, including ones at the Sleep Medicine Clinic of the University of Edinburgh (Scotland), at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University of Freiberg (Germany), at the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics of the University of Virginia (USA), the Institute of Sleep and Rhythm Neurobiology University of Oxford (England) and the Department of Neurology at the University of Bern (Switzerland). 

Currently, A. Gabryelska is doing her specialization training in psychiatry at the Department of Affective and Psychotic Disorders of the Medical University of Lodz under the supervision of prof. Dominika Strzelecki. 

 

Aleksandra Likońska PhD 

Paper: Mepolizumab therapy decreases epithelial-derived cytokine concentrations in exhaled breath condensates from patients with severe eosinophilic asthma. Clinical and experimental allergy:  2023 Aug;53(8):846–849. doi: 10.1111/cea.14316. 

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education score: 140 points 

IF: 6.1 

An allergology resident, a graduate of the Faculty of Medicine of the Medical University of Lodz (born 2018). 

Her major ​​scientific research area  includes the immunopathology of asthma, the role of the endothelium in rhinovirus infections and biological treatment of severe asthma. Dr. Likońska defended her PhD with distinction in December 2023, and the distinguished publication is included in the dissertation as part of the article-compilation format. The scientist has numerous publications to her credit, the total IF of which is 57. Since the last year of her studies, she has been working at the Immunology and Allergy Clinic and is currently employed as an academic teacher.