Mariola Kurowska-stolarska

Biography

Mariola Kurowska-Stolarska is currently working as a Lecturer in the Department of Infection, Immunity & Inflammation

Research Interest

My primary interests are mechanisms regulating excessive inflammation, particularly in rheumatic diseases such as Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA). Over the years, I have become determined to better understand the complexity of interactions between multiple inflammatory and anti-inflammatory pathways. I have been working on the role of IL-33 and its receptor in the modulation of adaptive and innate immunity and I had also explored the impact of hypoxic environment, present in the joints of RA patients, on gene expression profile and its functional consequences for activation of synovial cells. My current projects focus on microRNAs (miR), a new class of post-transcriptional regulators, which are now perceived as a part of the epigenetic regulation of immune response. More specifically, I am working on the identification and characterization of microRNA network in the activation of dendritic cells, monocytes and synovial macrophages of RA patients resistant to treatment. I use deregulation in microRNAs network as a probe to identify pathways leading to unbalance inflammation in synovium. This led to the identification miR-155 driven decrease in SHIP-1, an inhibitor of PI3/AKT and TLR signaling in synovial macrophages and miR-34a driven down-regulation of Axl, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor of dendritic cells activation. I am also interested in understanding the interactions between pro- and anti-inflammatory microRNAs using DICER (microRNA) deficient macrophages. My arthritis work is supported by Rheumatoid Arthritis Centre of Excellence (RACE) http://www.race-gbn.org/I have also developing interest in understanding tissue remodeling, in particular the role of cholesterol metabolism and its miR regulators in normal repair and pathogenic fibrosis.